11, 12, 14
by Alice C. Ravenwood
Summary: What? And ruin the story? Oh, Moffat would have my head for that. In the immortal words of River Song, "Spoilers". The Doctor meets a new, mysterious companion and the number thirteen haunts them. What does it mean? The only way to find out is to read my minions.
1. More Spacey Wacey Things Have Happened

"You are full of it!" Maya said, laughing at his statement.

He had his back to her but judging on his behavior, Maya assumed his face had a mixture of confusion and annoyance. The strange Man lifted his head to the left, with his arms messily crossed over his chest. He furrowed his brow and in a semi-hushed tone muttered to himself, "nine hundred years of travel and that still doesn't make sense. Look!" that last word was exclaimed as the Man walked towards Maya, pointing at her like a small child who had run out of intelligent things to say.

"People don't just appear out of nowhere, in a _Tardis_ that can go _anywhere_ in time and space. I think you need sober up and lay off the narcs, pal."

The Man then grew an impish smile. "Oh humans, you and your small mindedness," private revenge to girl's insult.

"You never used to be like this," he said quickly and in a slightly higher tone, as if he were talking to himself out loud, walking away from her.

Maya turned toward him as he walked towards his blue box. Mockingly she asked, "And how would you know?"

The Man haphazardly leaned against the box; the heel of his right foot padded the wooden exterior. He idly crossed his arms, neatly across his chest. He tilted his head towards Maya and with a knowing, almost cocky smile, he slowly said, "Why is it so difficult for you to be open to possibility?"

With that, he lifted his right arm. Snapped his fingers. And with that, the doors that she hadn't really noticed before on a side of the box, opened, revealed a beautiful bright light from inside. Maya's eyes opened, albeit only slightly wider. Everything about the Strange Man's face was inviting Maya in. Like a bug to a zapper.

Though still convinced he was under the influence of some _really_ strong substances, there was a strong curious spark inside her that she couldn't ignore. Maya felt that if she walked away right now, it would haunt her with regret for the rest of her life. Slowly and carefully, Maya walked towards the Man and his box.

Maya and the Man were now mere inches apart; she looked him over one more time. He didn't look crazy; he looked completely mental. Almost as if it were on purpose. "You're move," was all he said.

Maya stepped through the threshold and her face resembled a fish; wide-eyed and gapping mouth. Somehow, inside this small box, was a room that looked like it could fit a hundred people and still have room for a hundred more. The Man walked past her, and almost in a frenetic dance moved toward a large, oddly-shaped column in the room's center. And like a small child, in an 'I win, you lose' kind of way, he said, "That's never gotten old and I doubt it ever will! Now then." The Man started flipping levers, twisting knobs and pressing bright flashy buttons on the column. He looked over at Maya through the corner of his eye, she didn't notice his smile.

After the initial shock, Maya walked more into the Tardis and let out a breathy laugh. She whispered, "This can't be real."

A voice came from behind, "But it is, so don't waste my time with silly sentences like those."

Maya jumped, she had been so enamored by the massive room that she hadn't noticed that the Man was no longer standing at the large column in the center, with its exposed gears and bright switches and rope pulleys. He was now standing on her left.

"Would it help if I said 'sorry' and that I take it all back?" She asked with wonder in her voice. She still didn't look at him. She didn't even stand near him; Maya asked that question as she moved away from the Man. She couldn't help but explore this gigantic room. Maya touched the walls, the railings, just to make sure it was all real. This was a dream she didn't want to wake up from.

She found a staircase and sat on it, took in a deep breath and then Maya looked up at the Man. He still stood where she left him, only now he was leaning on a handrail, letting Maya take in the Wonderfulness around her.

Then he looked up at the ceiling, hands in his trouser pockets and shrugged an answer to Maya's question. "Mm, couldn't hurt."

"I am sincerely sorry," and Maya was. "But why me?"

The Man walked toward the console looking miffed. He mused to himself out loud again, with amazement in his voice, "Humans? What is the matter with you people?" His hands started to talk as much as his mouth.

"Something incredibly awesome happens and you have to ask questions." The Man stopped moving around the room and stood still. He then started repeating "awesome," saying it a different way each time.

He had a nostalgic look on his face. "I haven't used that word in nearly three hundred and twelve years," he mused and turned his head toward the young girl on his staircase. "I think I'm going to start again."

Maya shook slowly and mouthed, "No."

"Bah," the Man waved his hand at her and began to press more buttons.

Maya stood up and walked towards him. "You still didn't answer me. Why?"

"Didn't your mother ever teach you something about never looking a gift horse in the mouth?" He didn't look up; too busy fiddling with more levers and knobs.

"My mother also told me to never get in a car with a stranger, even if he offers you a bag full of candy." Maya smiled as he looked up. "So why the bag of candy?"

The Man closed his eyes and breathed. He deeply loathed when he had to purposely be serious.

"You know that planet out there?" He pointed at the Tardis door, referring to the one they were on.

Maya nodded, and in a confused monotone answered, "Yeah, I live there."

"Then why else are you in here?"

She stopped. Out there was Pathos, the worst world in the universe. She thought about her answer, "You want to 'save' me from this?"

"You just don't belong here, is all." That wasn't a question.

Maya breathed through her nose, there was an audible sound, the kind you make when you don't want to cry. Adventure, danger, mystery; it was too alluring.

"Because deep inside your bones you've always known that you were an explorer, a thrill seeker. You've always wanted to marvel those Egyptian pyramids you saw in those books as kid. Fantasize about those chocolate cakes and what they would taste like. I think I'll put that on our to-do list. See other humans. Touch them; make sure that is was all real. There is so much potential to the human race, and it is wasted on a dump like Pathos! Honestly how you've put up with it is remarkable. I couldn't, but then again I don't have to, because my box does this." He pulled down on a crank and then the whole floor shook like they'd been hit by a quake. They fell to the ground, the Man laughed in complete delight. Maya looked absolutely terrified yet there was a certain light in her face that she couldn't hide.

To a degree of difficulty, the Man stood. He ran around the column quickly flipping switches, toggling knobs and at one point rang a bell. Then the shaking stopped. Maya looked confused.

"Was that it?" She looked at the Man. "No offense, but that felt like no more than riding one of the broken carts in the mines."

In an odd tone, he said, "Well, fine, if that's what you think than, Pathos is right outside that door, then."

Maya was hesitant to move. "I don't want to go back. Never."

"Too late. You've already insulted my box. More than once, actually."

Maya looked apologetic, then turned to the door. She slowly walked out. Her hand touched the door, but before she opened it, she gave one last look at the Man, but he wasn't where he left her. So she opened the door and left.

But when she took her first step, her foot hit nothing because nothing was there. They weren't on Pathos, they were in space.

Maya couldn't appreciate it because she was holding on for life. When she took her step, she fell out of the Tardis and now was holding the bottom corner of the door.

"Whoa!" A hand grabbed hers. "Didn't think you'd actually step out here." He pulled her back into the Tardis. Maya breathed heavily, as both of the Man's hands covered opposite sides of his chest.

When she regained her breath and her heartbeat had slowed. "So you were full of it when you were kicking me out?"

He muttered, "That phrase again."

Maya stood up dusting off her pants. She extended her hand to help the Man up. "Sorry for doubting your box's ability."

"Oh, I do it four times before breakfast. But I'm the only one, got it?"

Maya raised her hand in a salute, "Oui, mon capitaine."

"Oh, don't salute. I don't like it," he turned to walk away, but quickly turned back to Maya. "How do you know French? You've never been to Earth, you're the only human in this galaxy, have been for quite some time, if I got my dates correct. Usually don't, but lets all pretend."

"Do you always go off on tangents?"

"You're not even speaking an Earth language, you're speaking Plath, lexicon of the oppressed miners of Pathos. So, where did the French come from?"

Maya was genuinely confused, "I don't know. The words just came to me."

The Man looked her over for a second, then walked away. "Ah, well, probably a coincidence, if I investigated every single spacey-wacey event I came across I'd never get of the ground."

"Spacey- wacey?"

"I've found that people don't like when I start using words that, really, lets be honest, only the people who invented them truly understand their meaning."

"But spacey- wacey?" the girl asked again, almost teasingly.

The Man didn't look up but started to talk really fast again. "Well usually I would question whether or not there was some kind of disruption in the Tardis's atomic connection with her translation matrix, micro-binding a chronon field to your DNA." Maya raised eyebrows. Not understanding a word he said, she simply nodded hoping he would stop. He didn't. The Man now had a look on his face, he was on a role. He pulled out a black and gold stick that glowed and made a weird noise, moving it over Maya's body.

"But the polarity flow shouldn't have reversed the hypersonic sound waves by itself. However, the energy in the arcrin circuits could have been manipulated. If I filter it . . . Ow!" Maya had hit the Man's hand away, taking with it, the glowy stick.

"Next time, ask permission before you start x-raying someone's body." Maya stepped over to the column and leaned against. "And next time, I won't say anything if you use spacey-wacey."

The Man smiled. Maya smiled back.

"What's your name?"

"Maya."

"Really? That's pretty, never had a friend called Maya before. Might be interesting."

"What's your name?"

"I'm The Doctor."

"Doctor . . ." her voice trailed.

The Doctor looked up, she couldn't read his look, but it resembled something along the lines of disappointment. "I like better it when they say Doctor Who, and when you saw the inside of my Tardis for the first time you didn't say that it was 'bigger on the inside!' Everyone always says that it's bigger on the inside."

"Well, then, I guess I'm just not like most of the people you've picked up."

"Not, at, all," The Doctor stared at her quizzically.

Maya raised her eyebrows. "Really, then, just the Doctor? Not Doctor Something-Or-Other?"

The Doctor looked at console and hit a button. "Just the Doctor."

"When you were born, your parents actually named you the Doctor?" Maya frowned. "Gees, and I thought my parents were cruel when they decided Pathos was an excellent place to raise a child."

The Doctor slowly lifted a lever, "I like it. What's wrong with it?"

"Talk about having high hopes. Either that or being a bit self-righteous."

The Doctor just stared off. But that lasted for about two nano-seconds. He snapped out of it quickly, and started walking around the column, spinning every once and a while. "Right, now, where should we go?"

"What?" Maya had been staring off into to space. Literally, the Tardis door was still open.

The Doctor turned and saw the door. "Awp!" He ran over to the door and closed it, locking it tight. "There. Don't want space pollen getting in. Nasty stuff. Makes you smell things that aren't there. For three weeks I was trying to find those peanut butter cookies. Turns out it was space pollen"

"Sorry, I was looking at the red dot."

Without looking back at her, he said, "Pathos."

Maya nodded and slowly said, "Yeah."

Not sure which answer he wanted, he asked, "You want to go back?"

Maya wasted no time. "Nope."

The Doctor smiled and laughed, echoing Maya's. "Now, this console can take us anywhere, to any when you can think of. Remember all those dots out there? Well, imagine a thousand more and then multiply that by that little sideways 8 thingy. This little beauty has access to all that and more." He placed his hand on the large hand break. "Pick one."

"Wow." Maya looked at the console, the Tardis door, then the Doctor. "You pick."

The Doctor was taken aback.

"What?" She looked at his face. "No one's ever asked you that before."

"That wasn't a question?"

"Nope," Maya looked at the console again. "I'm assuming you've been traveling for a long time. So you know this universe better than I ever will. This is a time machine. So let's go somewhere, anywhere where there are humans. Real humans. Somewhere where exciting things are happening. Danger. Somewhere you've never been but always wanted to go. Only one rule."

The Doctor looked at Maya almost impatiently.

"Where ever we go, it has to be. . ." Maya trailed her sentence and looked at the Doctor. She gave him an impish smile.

He looked at her, cryptically, not sure what she was playing at. She lowered her head, her eyes still on the Doctor, prompting a knowing smile.

The Doctor's eyes lit up as he got her meaning, "Awesome!"

Maya smiled and laughed excitedly; she and the Doctor turned to the console. He started punching a keyboard, twisting knobs.

"So, where are we going?"

"Oh, somewhere exciting!" He pulled a lever.

"Dangerous?" Maya smiled.

"Extremely," then the Doctor stopped. Hand on that crank he pulled the last time that made the Tardis shake. He looked at his hand, then at her, "You scared?"

"Exceedingly," she looked at his hand, then the Doctor, then nodded.

The Doctor's smile had never been bigger. He laughed, almost evilly as he pulled the crank.

"Woah!"

The Tardis shook again; Maya and the Doctor fell to the ground, this time both laughing in sheer excitement.

Geronimo!

****AN- Obviously, I don't own Doctor Who. (If I did, I'd be writing on the actual show. =]) So, where are they going? Why did the Doctor choose Maya? Why is she on an alien planet? Why am I asking you questions I know the answers to? Wanna know? Then you're just goint to have to wait until the up coming chapters my loyal fans. ;) But be warned. Like the Moff, I am a sadist. MWAH AH AH (that was evil laughter:) ********En********joy ;)****

****PS- Check out some of my other stories! ********Oh, and don't forget to review!****

****PSS- Which Doctor do you think this is? Not a quiz;a real question. I have Matt in mind, but when I look back, I keep seeing David. I LOVE David. (I doooooo) but I'm want Eleven for this story. Do you guys think I'm getting it right? ****


	2. CHAPTER 2

**AN- The real chapter name is too long, so I'll just type it here. Enjoy =]**

**_Chapter 2:_**

**_J.K.'s Ultimate Secret and A Fantastical Waradrobe with Georgie_**

My name is Maya. I'm human and I'm long way from home.

Humans come from Earth, but I've never been. I've lived my whole life on a planet called Pathos, a desert planet where the best one could do was work in the hadrite mines for the Corporation that owns the whole world. It's a dangerous and uneventful life. But, then again, I'm not made for it.

Pathos' natural inhabitants are called plaths. I was the only human in the galaxy. I never knew my parents. Don't cry for me. But, then again, I don't know how I came to Pathos. My guardian said I was part of a trade agreement.

Humans are the reason Pathos is the way it is. They used every resource the planet had then left. Haven't been back since. Everyone on Pathos would have died, if the humans had known what hadrite was. Now that is all Pathos has to offer.

My guardian had told me that I was different. That I'm not plath, I'm human. And ever since then I dreamed of getting of that stupid rock and seeing humans for myself. Seeing Earth. Now, I finally can.

BAM!

"And we're here!"

Maya got up and dusted off her pants. "But what's out there?"

The Doctor started down a corridor Maya hadn't noticed before. "Not sure," his voice echoed. "Never been, remember. Keep up."

Maya was still amazed that the Tardis was now even bigger than it already was. She looked around more corridors and stairs; probably leading to magical worlds of untold tales.

"Oi!" A voice echoed throughout the now much larger Tardis. Maya turned; the Doctor was standing at the corridor's entrance again. "Didn't you listen? I said keep up. Now, I'm going to have to say the whole thing all over again. How boring."

Maya wordlessly followed him down the corridor. Too stunned to speak.

"Now here we have a library of books." There had to be millions of books on the shelves, which went from floor to ceiling. Quite impressive, considering the ceilings had to be as high as a cathedral's. Then there had to be another two million stacked haphazardly on top of each other like a Jenga tower. How were they still stacked after the Tardis went rocking around earlier?

"Every book ever published, everywhere, ever. Except for the eighth Harry Potter book, even I have to wait for it. You'd think J.K. would cut me in, after all, I took her to Retcore; she's a tricky devil."

"And a swimming pool," Maya nodded towards the Olympic sized swimming pool in the center of the library. Why not?

"Yeah, but don't come in here for a swim later. You never know when it'll be gone"

"It moves." Maya was no longer surprised, it took too much energy. "And it's in the shape of a . . . ?"

"Oh that's an early Native American symbol." Maya looked back it him. "It means 'Big Wisdom'."

"That's not conceited in anyway."

"Really? I thought it was a bit but . . ." The Doctor stopped. He continued looking into the library, not at his latest passenger, and in a dry monotone, "That was sarcasm. Wasn't it?"

"No," Maya said in a long, exaggerated way.

"Oh good," He turned, leading her to another room. "Because I can expertly pick out sarcasm. Someone I used to travel with was fluent in it."

From behind his back Maya rolled her eyes and stifled a laugh.

"Wardrobe!" This room was about as big as the library. "Something from every time zone, every era, everywhere. Comes in handy when you want to blend in. Oh, that reminds me." He disappeared into the large pile of clothes. If it weren't for the infrequent bangs and crashes and "I'm okay's" from the Doctor, Maya would have thought he had disappeared into another world, where it snowed.

The Doctor returned with his hair more messed than it was before. He was coughing, covered in a green dust and his jacket was torn. "Here," he hacked in between coughs.

In his hands was a dress.

"Don't you think you'll look a bit silly in that?" Maya asked.

The Doctor looked at the clothing, then at Maya. "Actually, I look quite dashing in it. Well, not anymore. I used to, but then I changed, and then I changed again and again. In fact I haven't seen how it looks now . . ."

"That's okay," Maya quickly snatched the outfit out of his hand, while holding it as far out as she could, she wasn't really one for dresses. Never worn on before. She looked down at her own outfit. Thick dark tan trousers, tucked into her ankle boots, standard Pathos water miners. Lighter tan long sleeve shirt, with her sleeves rolled up, and her foreman whistle around her neck. Anything was better than what she was wearing.

Maya wasn't entirely sure how to wear this. "How hard could it be?" She muttered to herself.

"And you'll need these." The Doctor handed her a large bag. "Accessories."

Looking proud of himself, he continued, "I've traveled with girls long enough to know they need accessories." He opened the bag. "I think I got everything, shoes, yes, and, ooh, right time period. Shoes are the trickiest of these little devils. Headwear, a little ahead by a year, or four. Hey, maybe you'll be the one who starts the trend. Yep, all in there. Here you are." He handed her the bag and stood there. Waiting.

"Well, go on."

"You want me to change, now? In front of you?"

One whole second. Then it dawned on the Doctor. "Oh, right, sorry. Stupid Doctor." He hit himself in the face. Maya not the least bit surprised.

"You need a place to change. Follow me."

"I think you'll like this room. The bed in this room is perfect for jumping. Although, fair warning, you may hit your head. But it is so worth it." The Doctor unlocked the room and what Maya saw was better than anything she had seen in the Tardis so far.

The walls were a dark pink and medium purple. A large four poster bed, big enough for ten people, with curtains to hide whomever was sleeping. A large silver chandelier with real burning candles hung from the ceiling. There was an elegant desk and chair, a pale white vanity set with a gold trim, a beautiful black armoire, and for some reason there was a model of the Tardis on a side table. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a lamp.

Maya had never seen anything more beautiful. She lived in a room half this size with the ten other foremen of the North Water Mines. She slept on an itchy cot that was a little small and smelled weird.

"Oh, sorry, wrong room. It used to be tenth on the right not ninth." He looked up at the ceiling. "Thanks old girl, changing the rooms on me again. And people wonder why I can't remember anything. Okay, this is embarrassing, I'm sorry Maya, we'll get this sorted out. Come on, I know where we're going. I think." He turned to look at Maya, but she wasn't next to him anymore. She was lying on the feather soft sheets.

"That's okay Doctor. I can suffer through in here."

"Why would you want this room? It's boring and too soft."

She laid her head on the pillow and cooed, "I'll manage."

"Fine." He turned and muttered, "It's your room."

Then loudly he said, "Well, I guess this room is okay too. It is right across the hall from the good karaoke club. The other one is rubbish, doesn't even have Elton John's Don't Go Breaking My Heart. Though that one does have a . . ." The Doctor stopped once he turned again and saw Maya on her new bed. He smiled and closed the door.

* * *

><p>"Well, how does it look?" Maya asked hesitantly. Self-conscious, she had never shown so much skin before. The Doctor looked up from a piece of Tardis technology he held in his hand.<p>

The silk ivory knee length dress looked amazing on her. It had a thin pale gold criss-cross pattern down the bodice, ending at the waist. The dress had three layers of fringe, each layer of fabric slightly lower than the one above, that looked graceful as Maya walked down the stairs and elegant when hanging in stillness.

She wore a long pearl ivory necklace that was styled in the shape of a 'Y' and matching single pearl earrings. On her head, Maya wore a stretch headband the color of eggshells with a large pure white feather in the center of her forehead. Hanging from her wrist was a beaded crystal ballroom handbag. The body was covered in layered feathers. It was mostly white with specks of gray and gold beads sprinkled in. Her elbow length gloves were in a contrasting, but lovely black velvet.

To top off the look, Maya wore black and faded white t-strip heels made of real patent leather.

The Doctor stared blankly for a moment, snapped his fingers, then walked up to Maya and fixed the headdress so that the large feather was now just slightly to the right of her eyes. "There we go," he bunched his fingers together, then kissed them, exploding his hand out. "Voila! You look incredible. You're going to fit in perfectly where we're going. Have you seen yourself?"

Maya shook her head 'no'; that sent the Doctor scurrying away down a different hallway. More crashes and bangs and 'I'm all rights' from the Doctor, until he returned with a mirror bigger than his whole body. He set it down up against the console and Maya saw her reflection.

"Woah!"

"I know," The Doctor stood next to her. "This hair just won't do what it's told. This is why I don't go in my wardrobe anymore. My hair was tossed and I got a rip in my favorite jacket. Luckily, I have more than one, and not just in that wardrobe."

Maya looked at him and smiled as he opened a random drawer and started pulling things out and tossing them aside. "Why? Is there a mischievous imp in there?"

The Doctor looked up at her. "Oh ,Maya, of course not. Imps don't exist." He went back to pulling things out of the drawer. "It was a gremlin."

"A gremlin?"

"That's why I was covered in green powder. Direct sunlight; what a way to go." He shivered.

"Are there gremlins all over this place?"

"Nope, just the one. Little Georgie was never allowed near the swimming pool." The Doctor lifted his head. "Well, except for that one incident, but Jamie was supposed to gather them all . . . Ah! There you are you little devil!" In his hands he held his object of desire.

He walked up to Maya and showed her the bottle. "Tigi." He opened it and spread the contents throughout his hair. "I've yet to see anything work better than their Bead Head line. Don't ever use Catwalk, Maya. It's rubbish."

Maya nodded, "Dually noted."

"There we go." The Doctor looked at his reflection in the mirror, straightening his tie.

"Still say that thing looks weird."

"No its not." He turned to face her. "It's cool."

"So, what's out there?"

The Doctor's eyebrows did a little dance. "Only one way to find out."

Maya smiled and ran to the Tardis door, but stopped at the door. She took a deep breath; her heart was racing with nerves and excitement. Maya placed her hands on the handles, and opened the doors.

Out there was a beautiful world. Maya marveled at the bright lights, the busy people, the lively music; the Doctor called it Jazz. When the Doctor promised worlds so different it could cause your head to spin, he didn't exaggerate.

"Chicago," the Doctor said as he had appeared at her side, "1923, by the looks of it." She looked at him with pure glee on her face. He had a grin as big as the Cheshire Cat "Maya you are defiantly not on Pathos anymore."

**AN- Wonder where this is heading? Sorry loyal readers, but you must wait. Oooh, do I have surprises for you! You will either love me or hate me (LOVE me!) I am off to write the next chapter, how about you write the next review! ;)**


	3. Some Grudges Last A Lifetime

They walked down Michigan Ave, the Doctor pointing out different buildings, marveling them almost as much as Maya. "It looks so different from the last time."

"I thought we were going somewhere you've never been before?"

"Well, of course I've been to this city before. I'm a time traveler, have been for centuries. But I've never been here before." The Doctor looked around. "Time-wise. It was over half a century ago, and it was much smaller." The Doctor jumped up on a fountain and stood on the ledge. He pulled Maya up with him.

"What was it like?"

"Brighter. One big light, all over the entire city. Which is part of the reason I couldn't come back." The Doctor sat down back towards the fountain.

Maya lowered herself to the Doctor. "Couldn't?"

"Well, it's been," he looked at his watch, "fifty two years. I'm sure they've forgotten all about it. Not exactly, proud of it, had to scare a cow. Poor thing."

Maya decided to let it go. She stood up on the fountain, "So is there anything worth doing here in Chi-ca-go? 1923?"

The Doctor shot up and stood next to her. "Oh, there are tons of things, so many you can't do them all in one night."

"Well, then lucky for us that we're not going to be here for one night." Maya looked at the outfit she was wearing, then up at the Doctor. "You got me into this thing. Let's put it to good use."

The Doctor straightened his bowtie and smiled. "Then we better get going." He grabbed her by the hand and they went running down Michigan Ave. again.

"Where are we going?" She asked in a laugh.

"To the movie house. Got lots to do, so where better to start than with a few Charlie Chaplin shorts?"

The sun had just gone down as Maya and the Doctor walked out of the Chicago Theater, having just seen one of the most popular films of the year, _The Hunchback of Notre Dame_.

"Oh, that was such a sad story," Maya swooned as she and the Doctor stood below the marquis. "That Charlie Chaplin was absolutely hysterical, and I loved Buster Keaton, but Lon and Ruth were just beautiful together. I am a girl." She threw in that last part when she saw the Doctor's face.

"Yes, well, they were . . . nice, I suppose, if you like that sort of thing. But didn't he seem a bit, oh I don't know, a bit drone-y?"

"Drone-y woney?" She stifled a laugh at her joke. "It was a silent movie." The Doctor looked up at the sky not looking at Maya. "What's with harsh critique?"

The Doctor tightened his lips and had an envious look. "No reason."  
>"You seem really hung up on a guy you've never met."<p>

The Doctor looked back at her, eyebrows scrunched. "Actually, I have had the unfortunate pleasure of meeting Mr. Lon Chaney during the audition process and he is not a nice person."

"Auditions?" Maya said in a high voice. The Doctor looked away but the damage was done. "Did you audition for Quasimodo?" Maya asked excitedly. The Doctor turned and walked away.

"Doctor?"

He walked down the sidewalk, hands in his pocket. "Hurry along Maya. You're going to get a Charleston lesson."

"You can't distract me with . . . Charleston? What's that?"

The Doctor didn't turn; he continued walking. With a semi cocky attitude, he said "Only one way to find out."

Maya stood there, then shouted, "Ugh." She then raced to catch up with the Doctor. Jogging in her T-strap heels.

"What's a Charleston?"

"That's not all."

She caught up to him. Now facing him, she was walking backwards so she could read his expressions. "What else do you have planned?" Maya had nerves and excitement mixed into her voice.

The Doctor's eyebrows did a little dance. "Let's just say that you will need to get into the swing of things."

"Swing of things?" Maya mumbled to herself. She had stooped, then turned quickly walking forwards. Out loud she said, "Doctor, what does that mean? Where are we going?"

"The temporally famous, Blackstone Hotel."

* * *

><p>The elevator door opened up on the top floor; the 26th. It revealed a young couple. The man wore a very fashionable suit with a matching hat. The woman wore a dress even shorter than Maya's. This woman's was a bright, almost obnoxious red, with a matching boa. She too had a very large feather on her head and T-strip heels; she was almost two inches off the ground.<p>

They were laughing joyously, leaning and falling over each other, stumbling as they entered the very ornate elevator. They were drunk.

They barely noticed the lift's operator. He did not wait for the couple to tell him which floor to go. He closed the door, cranked the handle and off they went.

"Hot Dawg! That place was just the cat's pajamas," the young woman said, all smiles.

"It's the best juice joint in the city," he said to her, forgetting all about the operator completely. "How'd you like your first time?"

She laughed in such a girly way. "No wonder they call it gigglewater." And at that she giggled. Annoyingly, it was on purpose.

"So, cash or check?" The man asked, leaning into the young woman. Making his intentions very clear, his hand found rest on her thighs. "Gams like yours should be shared with a friend."

"It's the best kind of friendship I've ever had," the young woman said before she kissed her 'friend'.

Without turning towards him, the young man ordered the lift operator. "Alright pally, you heard the lady. Take us to the 19th; that's where my room is." He said the second part to his date.

He looked up at the numbers; they were on the 18th floor, and still going down. The young man then got a little violent.

"Hey pally," he growled as he balled his fist, "I said 19th floor." He turned the operator around, but he had no face.

"What the . . ." The woman screamed. They backed away as far as they could in the tiny box.

The operator continued going down the floors, picking up speed.

16th

15th

14th

13

The Thirteenth Floor

They were on the thirteenth floor. That's what the number said. But the man knew this hotel very well. His eyes darted to the display with all the floor numbers' buttons. There was a button for floor twelve and one for floor fourteen. But in between those two numbers was nothing.

The doors to the elevator didn't open, but the operator to the lift disappeared. The faceless man, turned to the cowering couple in their corner, and then there was a burst of midnight blue smoke, leaving the couple coughing alone. The operator had disappeared.

"What's going on?" the woman asked in a low voice.

"We're just imagining stuff from the rutgut is all." The man said with a quiver in his voice, trying to be calm and brave for the lady he now was going to protect.

"We're on the thirteenth floor."

"Applesauce," the man said. "This building doesn't have a thirteenth floor. None of them do. Like I said, we're in my room, imagining stuff."

"All those stories are true," the woman cried. "We're going to die."

The man opened his mouth to say something, but didn't have time. The lift doors, revealing what looked like a hallway, identical to every hallway in the hotel, but this one was different. It was run down, abandoned, like no one had stepped foot in it for a hundred years.

"What are you doing?" the man shouted. The woman had started walking out of the elevator. He started grabbing the crank and twisting it. "I'm going back up!" he shouted, "I'm going back up!"

But it was to no avail. The lift was not moving.

"It's no use," a deep, husky voice said.

The man looked up, the woman was now facing him. Her entire body was a sickly pale grey; her face was lifelessly glazed over. She looked like a standing corpse. The only thing about her that seemed alive were her eyes. They were glowing. The eyes were a bright green yellow and they were more than just eerie.

"Give up," it was the woman speaking. "Give in."

"Listen Doll," the man said with a quiver in his voice. His hands shook as he crouched in the corner. He managed to squeak out, "I ain't gonna let some dumb dora scare me."

The voice said, "It is weak. It will be useless."

"I think not," a raspy voice shrilled. The woman walked to the man. The second voice also coming from her. "Surely there is something it can be used for. Entertainment?"

The way the second voice said 'entertainment' sent shivers down the man's spine. He started to panic, hitting every button in the elevator. Nothing happened.

The woman's body was now at the elevator's door. She extended her arm, palm of her hand facing the man. "Come with us."

A scream.

A flash of light.

The floor was empty again. Not a soul around.

Except for one. A man dressed in the Blackstone Hotel's elevator operator's uniform.

He stepped inside the lift and pulled in the hand crank and the door closed.

* * *

><p>The doors to elevator twelve opened. Revealing a lobby full of youthful people. They all stepped through.<p>

"What floor?" the operator asked.

One of the young men spoke up. In a sneering voice said, "26th floor. You know what we're here for." Everyone in the elevator cheered. The operator said nothing. He closed the door, pulled the crank and off they went. Yes, he knew where they were headed, and it was a disgrace that such a hotel with the Blackstone's reputation could actually hold such an establishment.

**AN- Title make sense now? Ever walk into an old building's elevator and wonder why there is no 13th floor? Here's a Doctor Who spin on why that is. Your patience is golden! Your reviews are even moreso!**

**PS- Couldn't resist implying the Doctor had something to do with the Great Chicago Fire. I hope he didn't, but knowing him . . .**


	4. Meet the Head of the Secret Service

She was breathing so heavily; Maya had never moved so much or moved so quickly in such a short time. She just had quite a work out. Her muscles were so sore, her feet felt on fire; she barely had the strength to grasp the glass next to her, but she needed hydration.

Slowly, her breathing became more natural, though still heavy. The Doctor held out a napkin and Maya grabbed it. She rubbed her forehead; sweat was pouring out of her part of her body. The Doctor too was profusely sweating. But they both were smiling as wide as possible.

"Still think you were bad?" the Doctor asked his young companion.

"Well," Maya started as she placed something in her hand, onto the table. "This will certainly help my self-esteem." It was a small trophy.

The Doctor picked it up and held it near his face. He turned it toward Maya and smiled at her. "I've never won one of these before. Amy always laughed at my dancing. Said it was rubbish. Who's laughing now Pond?" That last part was shouted at the sky while shaking the trophy in his fist. He then put it back on the table.

Maya just shook her head, then laughed uncontrollably at her new friend. Once she calmed down. She looked at the Doctor and asked, "So we saw some silent movies, won a Charleston Competition and I learned how to swing dance. Anything else people do here?"

The Doctor looked at his wristwatch, which, of course, was upside down. The Doctor twisted his arm and his head to get a good view of the time. He then said, "Nope, we're pretty much done here. Better start deciding about where to go next. I was thinking the next place could be. . ."

"Stop!" Maya held her hands up to try and stop him from talking. "Woah, kill the motor. We're here in a beautiful city, a beautiful building. We just got here. You picked it out. Are you telling me, this is all you want to do?"

The Doctor was looked puzzled.

"You said this was a hotel, right? So let's get a room, soak in the atmosphere of where we are and celebrate the culture we're surrounded by." Maya stood up and walked out of the ballroom with a huge grin on her face.

The Doctor smilied too, almost victoriously. He said out loud to himself, "She can see it." He balled his fist and pulled closer to his body, like people do when they have just won something.

* * *

><p>"Yes, we'd like the keys to the Presidential Suite on the Tenth floor." The Doctor said to the clerk at the front desk. "We have a bet going. My young companion here reckons that the room has a view of the Chicago River. We'd like to poke around up there and I'd like to prove her wrong."<p>

Maya looked at the Doctor, who winked at her without the clerk seeing it. She then turned to the Clerk and nodded. "I'm telling you, my best friend heard the rumors; the River is right there."

The man looked up at Maya and the Doctor as if they had escaped from a mental hospital. "Miss, I can assure you that the river can not be seen from any part of the hotel." Then he said in a condesending voice, "Sir, that room is for the President of the United States of America only. Civilians do not get to go there and 'poke around.'"

The Doctor pulled a black square from inside his jacket. He flicked it open, like a passport or wallet. Was it a universal ID that let him in anywhere? In a way, yes.

The clerk looked at the black wallet, then turned as pale as a ghost. "As you can see," the Doctor said, "I am Head of the United States Secret Service, The Doctor. This is my personal assistant, Miss Lucy Ethel. We are here make sure the Blackstone Hotel is perfectly safe should a certain leader come to stay here. Mr. . . Charles" he said after squinting at the clerks name tag, "Very asstute of you, Charlie-boy. Congratulations you just passed the first test. Very good, not giving the keys out to civilians. But as you can see, we're not, so could you go and get them please, and then we'll never have to see you again."

The clerk nodded soundlessly with a look of terror on his face, maybe from not understanding the babble that had been coming out of this man's mouth, and ran off through a door behind the desk.

Maya looked confused. The Doctor answered a quesstion Maya didn't need to ask. "He's going to get a manager so that way he won't get into trouble for giving someone the keys."

Maya nodded, then jokingly asked, "So you're not the head of this Secret Service?"

"That's what this paper says," the Doctor showed the black wallet. Inside it was a piece of white paper. But then it flashed to a card that said Secret Service, with a picture of the Doctor's face.

"Doctor," Maya said hesitantly, "That card keeps flashing."

The Doctor looked at her, then the paper, then back at her. "Maya, are you seeing a blank piece of paper?" He was confused.

"Yes and no," she said. "It's doint this thing where. . ." She was cut off. The clerk returned with an official looking man. He looked like he had not been happy in years.

"So you are the Head of the Secret Service, Mr.?"

"The Doctor, just The Doctor." And that was all he said.

"The Doctor? Could you please tell me why you are at the Blackstone."

"My personal assitant, Miss Ethel and I, are testing out local hotels in the city to see which one is the most secure and luxurious. Exit routes, hiding places, most comfortable, best food; all that sort of boring nonsense, should the Commader and Chief ever decide to come and visit the Windy City. And I'm sure you'd want him to come here." He then showed the manager the black wallet thing with the flashing paper.

"Oh of course, er, the Doctor," the manager nodded, "I shall get the keys and lead you to the room myself."

The Doctor put the wallet back into his jacket pocket. "Thank you my good man, for doing your part to preserve this great nation. Your country thanks you for your sacrifice."

* * *

><p>"I hope you'll find that the Blackstone is perfect for a Presidential visit sir."<p>

The Doctor walked around the room, hands in his pockets again. He looked over at Maya who was enjoying the very comfortable couch, then tentativly said, "Well, I don't know. We could give it a go. What do you think Miss Ethel?"

Maya looked up at the Doctor, this time she winked at him. She had her arms crossed and started to walk around the room, similarly to the Doctor. "I don't know. We might have to spend the whole night testing for trick locks and easy entry points, Doctor."

"Excellent point, Miss Ethel. Afterall, how could one gage the safety of somewhere properly with only a few minutes? The entire building must be swept for all possible insecurities." The Doctor looked at the manager, who almost looked scared.

He heavily gulped and finally managed to say in a shaky voice, "Whatever you think is necessary, The Doctor. You are, after all, expert." He handed over the keys and walked out of the room.

Before he closed the door, he turned around and said, "Should either of you require anything at all, the entire staff will be ready and waiting."

"Could you not tell them we're here?" It was Maya who spoke up. "We would perfer it if as few people knew of our presence as possible."

"Yes, of course." The manager nodded. "Miss Ethel, The Doctor." And with that he closed the door.

3

2

. . . 1

"That was Awesome!"Maya shouted, jumping up on the couch closest to her.

"See, how much fun that word it is." The Doctor joined in, jumping on the identical couch opposite Maya.

"Why was the elevator missing a thirteen?"

"It's a tiresome, tedious tale. Short version?" Maya nodded. "There is no thirteenth floor, in any building anywhere during this time."

"Wow, whole floors just gone." She then changed subject. "I can't believe he bought that?" She sat down. "How'd you do it?"

The Doctor stood over her; he pulled out the thin black wallet and handed it to her. Maya took it and studied it. "It's called Pyschic Paper. Basically, if I think it, the paper shows it."

Maya stared at the paper; it started doing the same thing it did in the lobby. "Doctor. . ?" She said it hesitantly because a headache was building. "It's doing that thing again."

The Doctor sat next to her; he opened her eyes lids wide and stared into them for a few seconds. He then pulled out the metal wand thing that glowed and made noise. "This won't hurt you."

Maya nodded, allowing the Doctor to use it.

He flicked it, and it opened. Maya jumped a little, but regained herself. She nodded again and the Doctor pressed a button and the device started making more noise. Maya tried to stay as still as possible. "What does it do?" she finally asked, wincing in pain. Not from the device, from the side-spilting headache.

"Well, it can do a lot of things, but none them involve maiming people. Do you have a headache?"

"Yeah, a bad one. It feels like I've been hit with a hammer. What kind of things?"

It stopped making noises. The Doctor was looking at his device, like he was reading something. "For one thing, medical scans. It can look at your entire body and see if anything's wrong."

Maya started rubbing her temple. "Did you find anything wrong?"

"Nope, you are a perfectly healthy. How boring would it be to be normal healthy human being? What exactly is it doing?" He said, nodding towards the paper. She handed it back to him, while he sat on the table directly across from the couch so that he could face Maya.

"First I saw the Secret Service thing you showed the guy, but then the paper, kinda, flashed and then I saw a blank paper. Then it looked like a, a soap bubble." Maya stopped rubbing her head. "What exactly is going on."

The Doctor smiled, closed his eyes and shook his head slowly. "Nothing bad.

"Psychic paper isn't full proof. There are ways around it. People can be trained to not be affected be affected by it. But that takes years, and I highly doubt that you've had any psychic training." Maya shook her head no, but sowly.

"Oh sorry, almost forgot, here." The Doctor dug into one of his jacket pockets and pulled out a small blue-green bottle in the shape of a tear drop. "It'll taste like oranges after cleaning your teeth but that headache'll be gone." Maya nodded hesitantly. She slowly unstopped the small bottle and drank the contents. It was unpleasant, as he said, but her headache was gone almost the instant it hit her throat. Throughout this, the Doctor continued.

"But there are people out there who are naturally not affected. Admittably, it is a very small demographic. Otherwise, there'd be no use for it if it hardly ever worked on anything. If their human, its usually because of their incredible mind. Pure geniusness." And he stopped talking.

Maya just nodded, rolling her eyes towards the ceiling. "So, is that why I'm seeing these images on the psychic paper? My 'incredible mind' of 'pure geunisness?'"

"No." Maya was taken aback by his brashness.

"You couldn't even pretend to be tactful?" She asked in a monotone. No surprise in her voice. "So what is it?"

"You have untapped psychic energy building up throughout your entire body." The Doctor shrugged, "It's evidence of undeveloped abilities."

She was starting to get a bigger headache. She rested her head on her hand. "Is that normal for someone like me?"

"Someone like you? Yes." But he was not done talking. The Doctor took a deep breath, as if the next thing he was about to say would be difficult. Maya had a look on her face that practically screamed, _'Just say IT!'_ So the Doctor did. "But for a human? No." That snapped Maya up and caught her attention. She counldn't say anything, but the Doctor continued talking, answering the question she couldn't bring herself to ask.

"You are human, but not completely. The sonic has you registered at sixty-one percent. One of your ancestors far up the line wasn't human. Your DNA, is mixed with something else." The Doctor tried to be tactful, as Maya had suggested earlier.

Maya stayed quiet for quite a while. Finally she took a deep breath. "So," she slowly started, "What is that something else?" When he didn't say anything, she said, "Come on. I can take it. I'm a big girl."

"You have an ancestor who was a Voyance."

She didn't look him in the eye; Maya stared at a corner of the ceiling. "And what is a Voyance?" she slowly asked.

"The Voyance are a species that will evolve from a small group of colonists who settle on a moon, called Sango 5. I'll give you the short version." He added that part because he thought it might help. He said the next part fast enough to get it over with quickly, but slow for her to understand it all. "There is something deep within the caves of the moon. There's a geological phenomenon there that humans won't understand for another 8,000 years; give or take a couple of decades. Metebelis Crystals; known for their ability to enhance psychic energy. Over centuries of exposure to the crystals, those living on Sango 5 with a long family history there develop basic psychic abilities. More time passes, their abilities become stronger. Unstoppable. Many planets start to fear the Voyance. So, they kill the Voyance."

"How could they if they were psychic?"

"They were betrayed, by one of their own. Blocked their abilities. Then he was betrayed aswell and the Voyance were gone forever. But somehow you survived. Somewhere up your family tree is Voyance."

Maya closed her eyes and breathed heavily. It was a lot to take in. "So, I'm the last of my kind. Technically." She stated flatly.

"You last echo of the Voyance throughout the Universe."

"Couldn't you take the Tardis and, and . . ."

The Doctor shook his head. It looked like it was causing him pain. "I can't. That is a fixed point in time. The entire line of the Voyance is off limits. But it's not just forbidden. The Tardis is literally locked out of that whole process, from the beginning of the moon to the death of the betrayer. Time will not allow a Tardis to interfere with that."

**AN- Thanks everyone for your kind reviews! I give you all virtual high fives and just because I like you guys; interweb hugs! Keep 'em coming! **


	5. And Tomorrow's Lottery Numbers Are

"So, what are some of these psychic powers I have?" Maya asked, almost excited now. After she had taken twenty minutes to get used to the idea.

"Not sure," the Doctor said nonchalantly. He walked about the room, pacing. Maybe it helped him think. "Well, you're less than half Voyance, so maybe half their abilities? All of them only half as potent? All the potency, half of the control? Half the potency, half the . . ."

"Ok, we can stop now. "She said from her chair. Hands up as if it would actually stop him.

The Doctor didn't look up. Without missing a beat, he kept walking about when he asked, "Is being saucy a psychic ability now?"

"Boy, if that ain't the pot calling the kettle black," Maya muttered loud enough for him to hear. Then she stopped and looked up. "What does it mean?"

The Doctor, still pacing and not looking up, said "Congratulations, you've just exhibited a psychic ability."

"Really! What is it!" Maya sat up straight, excitement tingling throughout her body like electricity, right down to the tips of her fingers.

A light bulb went out. "These tungstens are so unreliable." He took out a long cloth from a pocket inside his jacket then proceeded to unscrew the light bulb as talked. "Dunno, could be, clairvoyancey or," he threw the light bulb out the open window. "Or remote viewing." A small crash was heard. Neither of them gave a sign that they noticed. The Doctor probably didn't hear it at all. "Divination," he pulled out a new blub from his pocket. It looked like a star with over forty points. Where'd that come from? "Psycometry or any number of things." The Doctor shrugged and gave the light bulb one final twist. It was screwed in and the room was now as bright as if they were standing on a sun. Maya covered her eyes, as they started to water right away.

"Sorry," The Doctor shouted as he pulled out his sonic and quickly pressed a button. Instantly, the light was lowered to an appropriate level. Maya looked at him; no need to ask the question.

"That's a, a Yentor bulb. Has about a teaspoon of raw plasma from the Yentor Sun in the Ferradine System. Long way from here. Lasts for about a billion years. Give or take a century. It's encased by special glass made from the sun's plasma. Only one it could have worked with. Anyway that glass is the only thing keeping that plasma from burning a hole through my hands. The only bulbs I use in the Tardis. Completely indestructible." He hit the bulb with his screwdriver really hard to demonstrate this point.

"How was that in your pocket?" Was the only question she had.

"Remember my Tardis?" Maya nodded. "My pockets are just like that. Think Hermione's little beaded bag."

"Who?"

"Oh, right, you don't know about J.K. I really have to fix that soon. Telepathy!" He shouted that last part, pointing up at the air.

"Huh?" was all Maya had say.

"I think that's the ability you showed." He was now eye level with her, bending over, while she sat on the sofa. Though he was about a foot away.

"What is it exactly?"

"It's a transference of thoughts or emotions from another person, sometimes referred to as mind reading. Though that's very rare for a Voyance who reads minds. Mostly, they sense and feel the emotions and feel a thought. Like reading the back cover of a book, not reading the whole thing." The Doctor started playing with his sonic screwdriver, doing simple flips and twisting it around his fingers. "That phrase, the pot and kettle and all that was one I had been thinking about just before you said it."

"And I could have picked up on that without realizing it." Maya looked deep in thought, so did the Doctor. Then asked, "Do you think that'll be the only one?"

"We're just gonna have to wait and see. How boring. Waiting. I mean, we could just sit here and tap our fingers waiting for something to happen or we could have some fun."

"Like run around the hotel and test out my new powers!" Maya jumped up from the sofa, excitement nearly exploding from her pores. Nope, that was the lamp.

BAM!

The special sun bulb exploded. The Doctor ran over to her, jumping over a small table in the process. "Get down!" he ordered, tackling her over the sofa. Light flooded the room, so bright their eyes could only see dark.

The Doctor leapt up, trying to check the scene. He jumped over the sofa again. If Maya could see, she would have seen him leap like some sort of cat and sonic the a spot on the floor. The brightest spot in the whole room.

Then the light was gone. After a full minute, Maya could start to see again. She looked up and saw the Doctor hovering over her; a pair of sunglasses so large they practically covered the top half of his face. Probably came from his very deep Hermione pockets. The sonic screwdriver was taking a scan of her body. She didn't say anything this time.

"Doctor," she wanted him to know she was awake. "Did I do that?" She asked with concern; there was fear in her voice too.

He didn't look at her face. "I'm not entirely sure," was all he said. He removed his sunglasses and sat down next to her. Maya slowly pushed her torso up with her arm, the Doctor held his hand out to stop her, but she ignored him. She situated herself so that she was now sitting with her arm out for support. Other than a headache that was fading away, she felt fine.

Maya needed to know. "Doctor," she said softly and timidly. Afraid that if it were too loud, something else would happen. When he didn't answer, she again said, "Doctor."

This time he looked up at her. "Is there a psychic ability the Voyance had that would explain what just happened?" Worry in her voice, worry that she was the reason for the indestructible bulb bursting and the Yentor plasma leaking out.

Reluctantly, he said, "Yes."

And Maya went silent.

* * *

><p>"Psycokinesis, the manipulation of matter, it was and is EXTREMLY rare. Only two Voyance have ever had the ability and even then they only had some semblance of psychokinetic energy." The Doctor kept on explaining, but by now Maya was used to him going off on tangents she didn't understand so she just occasionally nodded while he continued talking.<p>

". . . So, for now, try to control your emotions and you didn't hear a word I said did you?" He looked up.

"What? Yeah!" Maya shook the look when she realized it was suddenly quiet again. "Something about emotions and energy?"

The Doctor, only mildly upset, "I don't talk because I like hearing myself sound important. Well, sometimes I do, but this isn't one of those times. You need to listen to me because what I'm saying could save a lot of lives. Try to keep your emotions under control. Massive amounts energy are being released throughout your body, like a dam in your brain. Being in the Tardis and exposure to the psychic paper is breaking it down. Or it has broken down all at once. Which could explain the psychokinesis. Either way, you don't know how to handle so much raw energy. Your emotions will play a big factor in it, so you're going to have to stay calm."

BAM!

Another light bulb in the room exploded. Both the Doctor and Maya hit the ground. But the room didn't get brighter. It only had slightly more shadows. A tungsten bulb had gone out.

"Wasn't me." Maya said quickly, her hands up at her face, as if this action would convince him that she didn't do it.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started scanning the remains of the bulb. He then read the readings his sonic device had picked. "No, I don't think it was." He said in a contemplative tone. He was deep in thought, again.

"Then why'd it explode?" Maya crouched next to him. "What caused it?"

"I don't know," then the Doctor had a look on his face. The sun was coming up in his mind. He jumped like he'd been electrocuted, and ran over to the other side of the room; the spot where the Yentor Plasma had splattered onto the floor. Only now, there was a hole a meter wide and two centimeters deep. The Plasma had eaten away at the floor like acid. The Doctor was scanning it.

"It wasn't you," he said in a low, mild bewilderment after he read the sonic, then closed it by hand, giving it a little flip.

"Doctor?"

He slowly stood up. "There's no residue. None! There would be heavy residual fingerprints if the light bulbs had been blown with psychic energy. But there's nothing!" He held his hands out, as if showing her would present an answer.

"So if I didn't do it, what did?" She leaned up against the wall, giving him room to walk about the space. Maya had a feeling he'd need it. Her psychicness was right on the money. Maybe the Doctor should take her to Monte Carlo next.

"I don't know. I don't, I don't know. I mean, the light bulbs in this time period are laughable at best. You can look at them funny and they explode. But Yentor bulbs. Those are indestructible. What could have caused it? What's powerful enough to break Yentor Glass? Especially not to leave a remnant of energy that's out of the ordinary on this planet. But there's nothing on Earth, not in this time zone."

"Maybe it was an oversurrgence of electricity?" Maya guessed. The Doctor stopped pacing, took his head off his hand and the look he gave her could only be read as, 'You can't be serious?' Maya shrugged. "Sorry," she said in the way Anne Hathaway did in _Love and Other Drugs._

The Doctor went back to pacing about the room. So much so that Maya was afraid that he'd start wearing a hole in the floor the shape of his boot prints.

Then he stopped.

Maya, who had sunk to the floor, asked in a monotone, "Figure it out yet?"

"Absolutely no clue," he said as he sank into a chair. Then his head popped like a rabbit out of a hole. "So, we're just going to have go look for some of our own."

Maya stood up. "Okay, but where do we start? This hotel is huge!"

"Not a problem," he strode over to the huge fireplace. Maya watched with interest. Knowing the Doctor, it wasn't just a fireplace. He pulled out his screwdriver and scanned the entire thing. It was nearly as tall the Doctor and twice the length of his arms. Technically speaking, it was huge.

The Doctor was finished; he put his sonic back in his pocket. He picked a brown funny looking thing off to the left of the fireplace. Maya gave him a look. The look was easily read; it said, 'What are you doing?"

He looked at his hand then her. She couldn't read his face, maybe it was confusion? Disappointment. He threw the bellow over his head and faced the fireplace again. Then he was gone.

"Woah!" Maya jumped up, she must have resembled a jack-in-the-box because she looked so uncoordinated. "Doctor!" The fireplace had spun around so fast; Maya was barely able to see what happened. She ran over to where an identical fireplace stood and started knocking on every surface she could find, calling "Doctor! Doctor!"

"Muh! Buh bewah! Bach!" a severely muffled voice called out.

"Doctor?" Maya started looking around the wall. "I can't hear you!"

"Maya." It was the Doctor's voice. Only, he was, whispering? How could she hear that? She couldn't hear his voice when it shouted. It continued. "Listen carefully. The funny looking thing I picked up and threw, I need you to put it back where it belongs."

Maya nodded. Then realizing he couldn't see that, she said in a normal voice, "Alright." She ran straight to the brown teardrop shaped thing, and picked it up. She slowly walked over to the fireplace, hesitant because she was unsure of herself.

"It's okay," his voice said calmingly. "Just put it back."

Maya swallowed and licked her lips, she then placed the thing back on its stand next to the fireplace and the whole thing turned, revealing a smiling Doctor on the other side. He ran down and hugged her tightly. "You heard me!"

"Of course I did, I'm not deaf." When they broke their embrace, she looked down. That's when she realized he was covered in dark dust, which was now decorating the front of her white dress. But she didn't say anything.

"That's not what I mean, Maya." She gave him a funny look. He was talking in riddles again. "When I realized that we couldn't hear each other, I tried tapping into your psychic energy. I was hoping you could hear what I was thinking. Used the sonic to locate the right wavelength."

She smiled. "My telepathy." And the Doctor nodded. "I really need to learn how to use that."

"One step at a time. Now!" The Doctor clapped his hands loudly and turned back to the fireplace. "Ready?"

"To?"

"Figure out what exactly is going on in this place." He started picking stuff off the fireplace's mantel. It paid off. The fireplace swung again, but this time, it was slower and only opened halfway. The Doctor stood at the entrance proudly. "Knew I'd figure how to work this thing." Maya rolled her eyes at that. He pulled a large torch from pocket and held a hand out. "Ready?"

Maya couldn't help but smile and laugh in marvelment. She then walked through the fireplace threshold taking the Doctor's hand for support. He flipped a switch and light flooded from the torch, exposing a long, narrow tunnel. They looked at each, gave a knowing smile and walked down the passageway, Maya barely behind the Doctor.

"One question," Maya said after thirty seconds. "How'd you know that this thing was here?"

"Well, I do have little experience with secret doorways in fireplaces." The Doctor quickly looked back to give her a knowing smile, then continued on. "Oh, and do try to not talk very much. Walls in 1923 are very thin."

"Okay," she whispered. Maya tried to stay quiet but she couldn't. "Um, another question," the Doctor let out a bit sigh. "Where does it go?"

"To end of the tunnel, where else?" He pulled out the sonic and started scanning the walls. The Doctor seemed to be fond of that thing. He looked disappointed, maybe he was scanning for something specific.

She bit her lip. The Doctor had asked her to be quiet, but something about the silence was uncomfortable. Maya held it in as long as she could, which wasn't very long at all actually. "Why is it here?"

"To protect the president. Should he ever decide to visit this place, Secret Service could make a quick escape down this long, spooky corridor if the event was ever required." He said it in a way that made it sound as though he wasn't paying much attention to her.

More silence, then, "Doctor, I-"

"Please. Stop. TALKING!" He was whispering, but it was as loud as whispering could be. "Under circumstances where my attention doesn't need to be solely focused I wouldn't mind, actually, I would encourage questions of historical value. But this isn't one of those circumstances. Now, little madam, I am going to very kind, let you finish what you were going say, answer as though I don't find it extremely boring and then we're going to carry on, without another word. Now, what is so important?"

Maya didn't show fear, or hurt or even that look you have when you're about to cry, like some of the Doctor's previous companions would have been already doing by now. Maya only held a cool expressionless look. She crossed her arms and shifted all her weight to one leg as she locked it firmly on the ground. Then in a detached voice said, "There is a staircase a few feet back the way we passed. You and your sonic didn't seem to notice it."

The Doctor pressed a button; he started scanning in circles, making sure he didn't miss anything. Then he tried to hide an embarrassed look. Admitting a wrong is not in a Doctor strong suit. "How'd you do that?" he asked in a low, quick voice.

"I felt it." He turned to Maya who now had a wondering look. "Somehow, when we passed it, I just knew it, I could feel an energy."

The Doctor looked at his screwdriver, "How could you not see it before. I expect this unreliability from her, not from you." He was referring to his Tardis.

"Wood, Doctor." He looked up and Maya was gone. But a small light wasn't too far away

"Maya?" he called out. He walked toward the light. It was a open door that lead to the stairs she 'felt'.

"Wooden stairs, behind a wooden door," she said. Maya looked up at him with a mock serious look on her face. "I think someone didn't want you to find this place."

"I'd ask how you knew about the sonic's weakness, but I think we both know the answer to that." The Doctor stepped forward looking at the staircase. There was a way leading down which looked older, but the way leading up looked brand new. But up to where?

"I'm actually scared Doctor."

He turned back to her, asking a question with only his facial expressions.

"These powers, these abilities. They're scaring me. It's all happening kinda fast. I just found out about them half an hour ago, and now I'm developing psychic powers. Sensing where things are, reading minds and I just know things like about the sonic and a hidden staircase and another language. It's frightening and-"

"Shh," the Doctor placed his hands on the side of her head. "Do you mind?" Maya understood. She had seen him do something like it before when he had briefly let her in his mind. Those images were hazy; but she knew it wouldn't hurt.

"Maya, it doesn't have to be scary. Were you ever afraid of anything as child?"

"Mhmm. The dark." She was transfixed. Very focused.

"Why?"

"You never know what's lurking in the dark. What's hiding in there."

_Maya._ That was in her head. _You don't have to be afraid._

The connection broke. They Bothe breathed heavily. "What did you do?"

"I only helped make it easier for you to let go of your fear." He started walking to the stairs. "Look at it this way. Now, you'll always know what's lurking in the dark." He started walking up the stair case. He disappeared as he walked up to the next level.

"You coming?" his voice echoed.

* * *

><p>"You hear that?" Maya asked after about ten minutes of climbing up stairs. There hadn't been an exit.<p>

"Yeah," the Doctor listened. "It's music."

"Why? Aren't all the clubs downstairs?"

The Doctor turned to her and looked like he had seen a ghost. "If I'm right, that's not a club, exactly."

After he didn't move for awhile, Maya walked ahead of the Doctor on the staircase, she could see a door not too far away now.

"No, Maya, don't go in there!"

Curiosity was too hard to ignore. With her hand on the knob, she asked, "What is it?" and the door opened.

Inside were people listening to jazz music like the ones downstairs, only it was slower and the dancing more evocative. They all seemed _very_ happy. There was a very strong, bitter smell in the air, like the alcohol on Pathos. Smoke hung in the like mini clouds. It was strangely gravitating.

The Doctor's look was both angry and slightly frightened. "A speakeasy."

* * *

><p><strong>AN- Hey everybody! Couldn't resist! If you're going to twenties Chicago, you have to include a speakeasy! <strong>

**AsIfICared- yes, the Voyance are something I made up, but the Whoniverse is so vast, there might be a species similar to them, but I did make them up for the purpose of this story. The Metabelis Crystals though are not something I made up. I found them on a _Doctor Who _wikia and they were so perfect, I incorporated them into my story. Thanks everyone! Not wanting to be full of myself, but you guys will LOVE the next chapter! Review if you want Chapter Six up! _Guys and Dolls and Gigglewater_. **


	6. Guys and Dolls and Gigglewater

"What's a speakeasy?" The Doctor's look was actually scaring her.

"Hey pally, bargin' in here don't sit too well with us." A _very_ large man said in a very flat voice. The music had stopped; dozens of eyes were now fixed on Maya and the Doctor. "We's don't like havin' strangas in here, and I ain't never seen either of ya's before." He cracked his knuckles.

_Doctor, I REALLY hope you can hear me,_ Maya thought loudly in her mind, focusing all her energy on sending him the mental message. _I'm REALLY sorry for opening the door. Please do something!_

"Hey, don't take any wooden nickles, pally." That came from the Doctor, in the same flat twang the big guy used. There was no trace of the authoritative voice he'd been using before. How was he able to do it? He pulled out the psychic paper and showed it to the guy. Maya wondered what he was seeing, since she could only see a blank piece of paper. The man's face went as white as Maya's dress.

"Looks like you don't know from nothing; dry up now before ya get busted down to only bein' a drugstore cowboy. Everything copacetic?" The Doctor looked tough, sounded tough; he oozeed confidence. It was, interesting to watch.

The guy regained himsself, a little. Enough to ask, "But, uh, what about this here broad?"

"What, nobody home? The doll's with me. Now unless ya want yer Jane to have to check ya for months cause yer kisser's too sore for cash, yer gonna let us through cause I need to knock some dead soldiers and beatin'my gums with you ain't my idea of a good time."

The man nodded, he actually looked scared. One: what was on the psychic paper? And two: what on Earth was the Doctor saying? Either the Tardes's translation matrix had gone down or he had talked in complete and utter nonsense.

The music had started up again; everyone went back to their drinks and general merryment. A small scrawny kid, no older than thirteen came running up and lead them to a private table away from everyone else.

Once they were settled, "Yer all balled up arencha?" he asked? Maya raised her eyebrow and looked genuinely confused. If he could hear the message she was sending, it was saying, _What the_? The Doctor shook his head. In his normal voice he said, "Sorry, sorry, slipping out of it is difficult once it's on."

Maya shook her head out of amusement and confusion. "Doctor, I may be psychic, but I'm still kinda new on how these abilities work, so you have some explaining to do. Start with 'speakeasy'."

"This is 1923." His voice was low; it rose and fell, sped up and slowed down in different places, like he was driving on a country road with only his words. "In this time zone there was something happening in this country called, prohibition. Certain types of drinks were illegal and speakeasies; they were the secret establishments that sold them. Rooms hidden in over-the-top places like this hotel are a favorite among the most ruthless of gangsters and we're sitting in one right now."

He looked concerned, Maya decided to switch the topic. "You did promise a trip of danger and adventure."

"Not, this kind. This is the kind of danger which would be categorized as suicidal." The Doctor started looking over his shoulder. Maya looked too. There were a few unfriendly eyes watching them.

"Doctor, why did you want to come here?"

He looked at her and was deciding whether or not to answer when she said, "It couldn't've just been for the smooth jazz and exploring a secret fireplace. You chose this time and this city. I know a little from what these powers are telling me. This city, in this time zone is one of the most dangerous and I think this kind of danger is exciting for you."

He just looked at her. "Call it intuition," she said.

"How are you controlling them so easily?" The Doctor asked. He didn't look confused, more like intrigued.

Maya sat on her hands. "I'm not," she admitted with a smile. She took in the look the Doctor was giving her. Now he was confused. She then explained, "it's all just coming to me. For the past few hours, bits of information have just been coming to me like I'm floating in a stream and it floats up to me. I don't know how though."

"But you've been sending me telepathic messages." He looked more intrigued now. Almost like she was an experiment in a petri dish. Where'd that information come?

Maya looked surprised, her eyebrows had shot up. "You did hear me!" How that worked, she didn't know either.

A noise came from under the table. Maya recognized that sound. What was he scanning now?

He looked at the readings. "I'd say the most probable trigger is high levels of stress. In a stressful situation, your brain tries to find the best way to get out of it without causing much injury to yourself. Possibly others aswell. And your psychic abilities have been reaching out for help. A word I never ignore. Well, depending on the source in which, that word falls on deaf ears."

"You think that when I'm in a stressful situation, my psychic powers reach out and become more powerful?" Maya was making sure she had translated correctly.

"You're only a partial Voyance, not sure exactly what that means yet. But, it may having something to do with what's happening. Your appearant control, your natural ability. Your human side may be doing that. Keeping the Voyance in check so that it doesn't over power. Instead of fighting; you look for a peaceful solution; an escape. You reaching out in situations so dire you feel you can't handle it all by yourself. That's how I came to-" he stopped there. Quite abrutly, in way someone does when they've said too much.

"Doctor?" Maya eyes him. "What were you going to say?"

"Think I'll try some rut-gut, after all never had any and that's why we came isn't? Do something never done before. Might taste like liquid glue but only one way to find out."

"It tastes terrible," Maya said using her psychic knowledge. "Doctor? What were you going to say?"

"Nothing. I was done talking."

"You're never done talking. You keep going like that bunny on tellie with the battery until someone stops you." More knowledge from her psychicness.

"You asked why I took you." She nodded. "It was because you asked me to."

That got her attention. "What? When?"

"I made a housecall. Don't do it often. Did it awhile ago, but not since. I got a message via psychic paperasking for help. Like I said, I don't ignore a plea for help. When I saw the coordinates, I knew I couldn't waste another moment. Pathos. Its a wonder why I don't get more cries for help from there. It was easy to figure out who sent the message. The only human on the whole planet."

She was so intrigued. "How did I do that? I wasn't psychic then?"

"What did I just say?" the Doctor looked annoyed. "Do words come of my mouth when I talk or is it like the silent film we saw earlier?"

"Doctor, you're not making much sense."

He didn't seem to notice that she had interrupted. "If they would just pay attention when I talk they wouldn't have any trouble following anything I say at all and they would have the answers because I already said them!"

"Doctor!" Maya grabbed his shoulder, and through her gritted teeth, she said, "you're rambling again and it's attracting attention."

The Doctor looked around the room, even more pairs of distrusting eyes were on them. _Just say 'yes' when I'm done talking_, Maya barely caught that mental message before the Doctor, very loudly, in that same flat twang from before said, "Thing is baby-doll, I'm goofy for ya and nobody else. Yer a choice bit a calico and if ever I had to wear bracelets, I'd only want you to wear the other side. Wise guys here may call it a handcuff," he reached in his pocket, pulled out a ring, and then, got down on one knee. Even with psychic powers, Maya had no idea what he was doing. Must be an Earth thing. "But I call it yours. I know I don't got jack, but if you say 'yes', I'll have you."

Silence spread throughout the joint, no music, not even a creak in the floor. For how long? Not sure. Maya didn't receive any psychic messages from the Doctor. Maybe she lost the signal. She only had the look in his eyes to go on and they were saying, _you're up!_

Then, it was as if everyone else was also psychic and they had decided unanimously to heckle and/or encourage the two people who were now the center of attention:

"Go for the manacle!" a woman's voice shouted.

"He is the Cat's Meow!"

"He's fried."

"She'd be hoary-eyed to say 'no'."

"Tell him to scram doll so that you can be with the Real McCoy."

Maya could feel psychic energy surround her and somehow knowledge came to her. She wasn't sure exactly what was coming out of her mouth but she had faith in her abilities. She took a breath and said, "You're a sap, a heeler and mine. You're swell, flyboy. So, ab-so-lute-ly!" And then she hugged him, even though she still wasn't sure what was going on, but she had a pretty good idea as he slipped the ring on her third finger.

The whole joint went into a whispered cheer. Appropriate considering the setting; no one would dare risk anything louder. The hushed music resumed and every eye turned away and continued their muted conversation. The Doctor sighed in relief. "That actually worked!" he said in quiet amazement, back to his normal voice. Was this the first of his plans to work? His statement sounded almost like a question and self praise. Only the Doctor could pull off that combination.

"Um, what exactly just happened?" Maya eyed the shiny finger, then the Doctor.

"Hm, oh, I proposed to you," he said nonchalantly, then clapped. "Now, to do what we came for."

"Woah, hold the phone sparky," she had taken his cue and used a low voice as well. But, it sounded like it could get higher at any minute. "You proposed? As in, getting married?"

He waved his hand. "It's nothing," he said like a kid who had failed a test and had to tell his parents. "Needed a distraction, something to get everyone to stop looking at us as gatecrashers and more like we're normal. And it's more than just a shiny ring." She eyed it.

"Your abilities are growing rapidly. You're gaining massive control much too quickly. Which means, the psychic energy surrounding you is growing hastily. That ring is a bio damper. As long as you wear it, you'll register as completely human, even to the sonic. If they can't read the Voyance in you, then the energy won't make any sense to scanners. It'll still register the psychic energy; they just won't be able identify what form. They may pass you off as human. An interesting one, maybe special, though not worth the effort. Hopefully. Let's keep our fingers crossed then, shall we?" His voice went all over the place during that speech. Maya only got that the ring was good and she should leave it on. So, she just gave him a double thumbs up and nodded, giving him with a look that said '_whatever you say, dude.'_

"They who?" was what she actuallty said.

"The ones who caused the Yentor bulb to explode. Would it help if I gave you some paper and a pen to take notes?" He reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a green feather pen. He reached back in and frowned. "Oh right, I'm out of ink. Gave my last bottle to Johnny Hancock. Trust me; he needed it WAY more than I did."

"Who?" Maya asked, holding pen to the side of her face.

"Now's not the time for a history lesson, we've got a mystery on our hands. I'm going to chat up the barkeep, see if he has a starting off point." And he walked off.

"Wait, what about, me?" The last part was quietly said, because he was already gone. Unfortunately, she wasn't alone for long.

* * *

><p>"What's a poor little bunny like you doin' in a gin mill like this?" the Doctor asked once again using that voice. The young girl he was talking to looked a little frightened, but still she had a plastered smile on her face. She wasn't used to this kind of talk, still new to the job.<p>

Judging by the big, flat box resting at her waist with a big strap around her shoulders, she was a cigarette girl.

Her outfit was fairly similar to what the girls in the legal clubs downstairs wore; it could have been the same uniform. She wore a black cropped jacket with epaulettes wrist cuffs, and notched lapels, all red with a gold trim and buttons, with a matching red collar with gold trim. Underneath was a red shirt with a deep V-shaped neckline, also with a gold trim and buttons down the front and a black flowy miniskirt, also with a trim of red and gold. On top of her frizzy, mousy hair was a black pillbox hat with a red and gold trim and a decretive gold button in the center.

"Sure you don't want one Mister? I got thirteen types in this here box," she said in a twang, different from the Doctor's fake one. If he had to guess, East Mississippi.

"Thanks for the offer, but smokin' gaspers ain't my idea of a good time." The girl nodded and went off to try and sell her cigarettes to someone else.

"Where's the fire? I'm not done talking." The young girl looked confused , also scared. She didn't know what this ominous man was going to do and why he wouldn't leave her alone. "What's your name?"

"Daisy Rill?" When she said it, her voice went up at the end, making it sound as though she were asking him her own name. The girl was hesitant, but somehow she knew he was harmless.

"What, don't you know your own name? What are you asking me for?" The Doctor asked, little did he realize that his voice had slipped back into the authoritative voice.

Daisy's eyes widened. "How'd you- ? You're a- you're a limey!"

"Shh!" The Doctor covered her mouth.

"Mmm," the girl sounded. She moved his hand away. "Are you a copper? Are you gonna arrest everyone? Look I need this job and I can't-"

The Doctor pulled out the psychic paper and Daisy stopped talking. "As you can see, I'm not affiliated with the police. Private I. People call the Doctor."

"How could a dick get in here?" Daisy asked in her twang. Dick at the time meant private investigator.

"Tricks of the trade. Afraid I can't tell you. And you should at least pretend to sell me those death tabs, otherwise your employer might get upset that you're not doing your job and we can't have that." Nora just nodded, he talked to fast.

"So, what're ya lookin' for?" Daisy asked in a shaky voice.

"I dunno," he said in a high voice. "Got a couple of ideas, and by couple, I mean 3 or 4 hundred. Need to narrow it down. That's where you come in. Has anything strange been happening in or around this hotel in the last, oh, month or so?"

Daisy shrugged, she whispered, "I wouldn't know. See I've only been workin' here about a week, which is why I gotta get back to sellin' these other wise I'll be sent back to Boyle, Mississippi."

"Ooh, I was close. I did say the East and I- Boyle, Mississippi?"

"Uh-huh. What does that have to do with anything?"

The Doctor had a firm look on his face. Then it changed to a smile. "Thank you Daisy Rill, you've helped me a lot actually. Go on selling your death tabs, I'll be over there, don't go to far though. Oh," he plucked a handful of cigarettes, then pulled some coins from one his deep pockets. "Keep the change."

Daisy nodded. Confused she walked about the room, doing her job as a cigarette girl.

The Doctor hurried back over to Maya, who was talking to someone and had a flute of champagne in her hands.

"No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!" he said in rapid succession. He pulled it out of her hands. "Don't drink that!" He looked over at her 'guest'. Without bothering to change his voice, said. "Sorry, mate, but you're going to have to leave."

"Hey, pally, you left the broad all alone."

"Uh, the 'broad', does have a name. It's Maya. Said four times."

"You hear that, 'pally'? Broad seems annoyed by you and wants you to go."

"Um, Doctor, I thought that we already established that Maya, the broad, has a name."

He looked back at her. "Sorry, Maya. The language here is contagious," he mused at the last sentence.

"And how!" Maya murmured under her breath, to reiterate the Doctor's point.

"Bank ain't closed unless I say it is!" the guy said, anger in his voice.

The Doctor got, nervous. This is the danger he was worried about. Gangsters and illegal alcohol, not a best mix. Hand on his sonic screwdriver in case this got bad.

But he didn't need it.

"You will leave now." The Doctor turned to look back at Maya. Her brown eyes were changing color; to a shade of purple. Nobody else would notice the subtle difference.

And the man left.

"When this is all over, back to the Tardis with you. I have a lot of test I need to do." He pulled out his sonic and started scanning the cigarettes and cigars individually in his lap.

"That Al guy was not nice," Maya said out loud to herself while the Doctor did his work.

In his nonchalant way of answering that made it sound as if he wasn't paying any attention to what you have to say, he said, "Probably a bootlegger trying to get up in world of organized crime."

"That's what he said. Came over from New York to long ago. He actually tried to get me to go 'out' with him, even after he said he's got a wife and son back in the City. He may be a dog for trying to step out on his wife, but he was a wealth of information."

In the same tone, "Really?"

"Yeah," Maya said trying to get him to take her a little more seriously. "Like people disappearing."

That got Doctor's attention. "What?"

"For about a week or two, the guy noticed that a lot of regulars have been missing. And nobody knows where they are. They're not in jail or anything. I asked if they went out of town. But at the same time? Maybe 20 or so people have gone missing and all after they've left not the hotel, but this speakeasy."

The Doctor did not say anything for moment. Then, he held up one of the cigarettes. "Did you know that if this place were only selling these, it would be perfectly legal. It's this," he held the champagne. "All the drinks, that's what makes this place illegal and dangerous. And the irony of that is these drinks aren't the harmful thing. We can talk the philosophy of drinking later, no time for that now. Do you know what charged hydrosite is?"

Maya nodded furiously, she knew all too well what is was and it's effects.

He held out the cigarette. "Fully charged hydrosite."

"What's it doing here?" Maya suddenly scared, for good reason.

"I'm about to find out." He stood up on the table. Maya just looked slightly embarrassed. "Ladies and gentlemen, and though I use that term lightly, I require your attention."

Nobody gave any notice to a mad man on a table.

He pulled out his sonic. "I said," pressing a button suddenly there was a piercing noise rang out, "Attention!"

The room was quiet; every eye was now on the Doctor.

"Thank you. And yes, I am a limey, best pilot during the Great War. Now, I don't have time for pleasantries so I'll do the quick version. I'm with the Chicago Police Department, this place is about to be raided, so, I suggest everyone leave now, or you will all be arrested thrown in jail for, oh, let's say seven years. Why not? It's good number. So, please leave." No one moved. He pointed his sonic at the only piece of technology, an ancient telephone, it exploded.

That's when everyone ran.

"Thank you," he shouted over the sounds of terror. He grabbed Maya's hand and ran with the crowd out of the room. It was a bit like running with the bulls in Spain. He shuddered at that memory.

"Would you mind telling me what you just did?"

"Ha, found one," he said. The Doctor had been scanning the crowd. They were now following one man who was stumbling down the hallway away from the rest of the mob, who were headed for the elevators.

Maya and the Doctor crept down the corridors, staying behind the man. He wasn't rushing down the hall now, he was walking very calmly. He came to a door and stopped; his hand touched the wall and the door opened. There was a man inside, a faceless man.

"HEY!" They ran down the hall trying to catch up, but the door closed and the Doctor ran into it. He scanned the wall and gave a genuine grin. It creeped her out.

"What are you so happy about?"

"It's a lift," he said still scanning. "A lift that can only be found by those who want it to be found."

"Sounds ominous," Maya said, leaning against the wall, catching her breath. She wasn't used to running, not in heeled shoes anyway. She actually missed her boots.

The Doctor looked her in the eyes. "Oh, it is." Then back to scanning. "Whoever put the hydrosite in those cigarettes also commissioned this elevator. After smoking fully charged hydrosite, it leads the person here and they walk in like any other elevator."

"But it's not just another elevator." Maya sort of asked quietly.

"But it's not just another elevator." The Doctor didn't notice her interjection. He now scanned a specific part of the wall, then he became disappointed. "Because you need hydrosite near it to even open it. It's deadlocked."

Maya hummed as she held out her hand, in between her fingers was a cigarette. "Lucky for us that that Al guy was feeling generous."

"Maya whatever-your- last-name-is, I could bloody kiss you right now."

"Sorry, flyboy but bank's closed." She smiled at that, so did he.

He soniced the cigarette and the door opened. Inside was a faceless man in a Blackstone Hotel Uniform. The Doctor soniced him and he was disappeared in a puff of midnight blue smoke. "Kemuri-Fumar. It's non-living smoke that can take shapes and be controlled by someone." He stepped into the perfect replica of the hotel's real elevators. "It's okay. It's not like this is the Tower of Terror. Ooh, another place I've always wanted to go. I'm liking this whole, choosey thing."

Maya stepped in, then eyed him knowingly. "Pull the lever Kronk."

"Show off." He soniced the door and then the crank. The lift jolted up a little, then quickly plummeted down. It was pretty close to riding in the Tardis. Maya held onto the hand rail. The little arrow that indicated what floor they were on moved so fast it could have skipped numbers.

BOOM!

Finally it stopped and they fell to the ground.

The Doctor sat up as he dusted off his tweed jacket. Immediately his hands went to his neck. He let out a sigh of relief. Unfortunately, the bow tie was still there. He helped Maya sit up and looked up at the ceiling. "Guess we can cross the Tower of Terror off the list then." He said with a cough

"You think?" Maya looked a little upset as blew the large feather away from her face. Then she looked at the numbers and tapped the Doctor rapidly. "Doctor," She pointed at the numbers.

"What?" He stood up to get a closer look.

He touched the thirteen with his fingers. He whispered, "What?"

Maya stood up and stretched her shoulder. The doors to the lift opened by themselves. "What?"

**AN-Too hard to resist having the Doctor talk like a 20s gangster. Also, couldn't resist putting in the triple what, even though it's a Ten thing. Oh, and the _Emperor's New Groove _reference was irresistable. I just _love_ Yzma! Off on a tangent again. Chapter 7 is currently under construction, and having some trouble with the dialogue. Tentatively titled _Am I Your Friend or Your Nanny? _I'll let you guys mull on that one. See you soon Readers!**


	7. Am I Your Friend or Your Nanny?

"We're on the thirteenth floor. I thought you said that these buildings don't have one." She looked out at the hallway. It was identical to the one on the 26th floor, only it looked like a bomb had gone off. Holes in the walls, debris hanging down from the ceiling, there was almost no light, and what little they did have frequently flickered.

"That was the short version. Okay, looks like we're going to have to do the real one. Triskaidekaphobia."

"Bless you."

"Don't interrupt; it's rude."

"Says the king of being rude," she muttered under her breath.

Either he didn't hear her or he just ignored her.

"On Earth, there is this belief that the number 13 is unlucky. So, when they started constructing buildings that required floors to go higher than thirteen, they tried to find ways around putting the actual number on lifts. Some places will put an 'M' instead of the number. But most of the time they do what you saw in the real elevators go 11, 12, 14 and skip the 13 altogether. So, the fourteenth floor is actually the thirteenth floor, except its not called thirteen, its called fourteen and so on and so forth"

"So there is a thirteenth floor?" Maya asked trying to clarify what he'd said..

"Technically speaking, yes." The Doctor stood up and pulled out his sonic, scanning the deshevled room as he walked about it. What would he do without that thing? she wondered. "In every other building, except this one."

She followed him out. "Okay, rewind please."

"Didn't I explain this?"

"No?" Maya guessed.

"Oh, I right. I did in my head though." He took more readings. "The hotel does have a thirteenth floor. Not the fourteenth being the thirteenth, an actual thirteen. When they were building it, the thirteenth floor was taken out and no one can get to it. The actual hotel on Earth literally has no thirteenth floor. The lift actually goes from twelve to fourteen, skipping over the thirteenth is because it can't access it.."

"But we're on the thirteenth floor. If the hotel does have it, how are we on it?"

"I was going to get there, if you had let me finish."

"I'm sure you were," she muttered.

"Thank you. Now, I said that we were on the thirteenth floor, because we are. I just never said we were in the hotel." The Doctor started examining the debris on the floor, tossing it aside after a second of two.

"Silly me for not asking asking whether or not we were still in the hotel."

"Oh, don't feel too bad, you're still a rookie."

"So, where are we?"

"Another dimension." The Doctor really needed to stop being nonchalant about things like lifts that take you to another dimension and people disappearing in a puff of smoke. How could he ever enjoy himself if the most supernatural thing anyone could ever think of became a mundane routine? She sighed at that thought.

"Don't worry, getting trapped in alternate dimensions is nothing. Happens to me every other century." He mistook her sigh. Sweet how he tried to comfort her. Would have been a more sincere effort if he had looked at her when he said it, instead of a piece of wood that had fallen from the ceiling above.

She shook her head and jogged up next to investigate the debris with him a'la Nacy Drew. "So, how'd that lift get access to another dimension?"

"Excellent question," he looked up at the ceiling. Out loud, he shouted, "You want to explain or shall I?"

A small light appeared, it circled around the room twice and then stopped millimeters from the Doctor's face. It slowly backed away and started to spin really fast creating what looked like a gold orb leaking glitter.

"What's happening?"

"Shush." and he pointed at the big glitter bomb. In its place was a small child.

"Hello," the child said in a voice that sounded just like the Doctor's. He responded in the same voice with a 'Hello.'

"Are you friendly?" The Doctor asked sincerely. Maya's eyebrows had never gone higher, even during her time with the Doctor. What an odd question. Where did that come from?

"Very much so," the small person said with a large smile. "Have you come to play with me?"

"Yes," he moved closer to the 'child', "Maya and I, this is Maya," he pointed to his friend, "say 'hi' Maya!" he said in a high voice as he waved at her.

"Hi?" she waved back.

"We were – oh look!" he had spotted something out of the corner of his eyes. The Doctor ran over to it. He picked up an object. "It's so round."

"Please don't touch that," The child asked in its adorable voice. "I don't like it when other people touch my things."

Maya walked over to the Doctor and pulled the object out of his hands, placing it back where he had found it. "Honestly, you're the poster child for Peter Pan Syndrome."

"Funny, I find that particular quality in me irresistibly charming." The Doctor smiled like a child who dipped his fingers in the cake's frosting and had gotten away with it.

"Am I supposed to be your friend, or your nanny?"

"Oh, laugh, laugh. Think you're very funny? Think you're a comedienne do you? Well, while you're off making silly little jokes, I'm here trying to figure out what exactly is happening in this hotel."

"I thought we weren't in the hotel."

"Good, at least you've been paying attention, but have you been paying enough?" The Doctor walked back over to the child.

"How to expect to play with people if you don't like them touching your things?" Ooh, good question. Why didn't she make that connection? She didn't have to; she made one on her own.

"Doctor! Duck!"

The gold child attacked with a blood red beam of light that shot out of its mouth. The Doctor ducked just in time to not get hit by the light which melted a rickety chair into a syrupy puddle that bubbled.

'Fwoo,' the Doctor let out a whistle and stood up. "That was cool. Having a melty light thing like that in your mouth. Wow. That's just beautiful. Though, I'd never use it and neither should you, it's rude and you can put an eye out with that"

"Do you know what that thing is?" Maya asked as she stood up from her hiding place.

He ignored her. "Are you going to promise not to do it again?"

"Yes," the gold child sounded disappointed. It pouted.

"Don't do that, your face might stick like that forever." The child obeyed the Doctor and stopped pouting. Then in a gold glitter bomb, it disappeared.

"How'd you do that?" Maya asked as she ran her fingers through her hair, trying to get any glitter out.

"Do I ask how your abilities work?" He began tapping the walls in odd places.

"Consistently," in a monotone. "What on Earth are you doing?"

"Nothing," the Doctor said matter of factly, continually tapping away at the walls. He, then started knocking in a random pattern.

"Nothing is ever nothing with you." She turned a semi-clean chair right side up and sat waiting for the alien to finish whatever that was.

"Well, of course it's not nothing. I'm looking for the source of the hologram's signal. I've almost got it. But that's not what you asked. You asked what I'm doing on Earth. When we're no where near Earth in the ten dimentions. Ah Eureka!" The Doctor soniced the last spot of the wall he knocked. That part of the wall, vanished, revealing a set of controls. "I'm always saying that you need to find a much better hiding place for your Chameleon Circuts."

He pressed a button and the thirteenth floor of the hallway disappeared. It transformed into something else. It looked like the Tardis main control room, only smaller and less fun, more evil. "Although, if people did that, then I'd have an much harder time of stopping them."

Maya stood up, not marveling as she did in the Tardis. "What is this? And no, my psychic powers aren't telling me anything."

"I didn't ask that," he said in a low voice.

"You were thinking it."

In a defeated voice he said, "You're in an alien's ship, in another dimension, do you really want me go on explaining the entire situation?"

"Is there a sparknotes version of you by any chance?" A dark hallway caught her eye. Worridly, she called, "Doctor?"

He turned to her, quickly recognizing that tone. "Are you sensing something?"

"Humans."

Maya wondered down the hallway. It was short and lead to a dark, room, barely any light, save a dozen or so small dots of eerie, green light. Until the Docctor flipped a switch. She wished he'd left it off.

It was a large, round room, the size of the Tardis control room. Along the wall were thirteen large tubes that went from floor to ceiling. Large enough for a humans and that's what were in twelve of them; humans. Except, they didn't look it.

Their skin was a sickly bluish, gray color. Every one of them had salt and pepper hair that looked like wires sticking out of their bodies. Their nails were discolored to a gnarly greenish, yellow color, a' la Dracula claws. They looked dead.

The only indication of life they had were their eyes. Their eyes were the source of the eerie green light. They were the color of radiation or glow sticks at a rave.

One of them looked familiar; that Al guy from upstairs. Well, now he looked like what he was, a creep.

"Ok, I know what's going on."

_Took you long enough._ "Well, for us mere mortals on the ground, can you enlighten us?" Maya walked the perimeter of the wall of tubes.

"They're miners, just like you."

She was just about to place her hand on the last one, the empty one, when a voice yelled out, "DON'T! TOUCH!"

Daisy Rill appeared running down the dark hallway, still in her cigarette girl outfit. "It will be the last thing you do!" she spat out in her southern twang.

The Doctor pulled out his sonic, and pointed it at the Cigarette Girl's head. "Maya, step away from her now!" The authority oozed from his voice; it was unchallengable.

"You can cut the act. This is a deadly laser device that will obliterate you into a billion specks of dust in 4.3 seconds flat."

"Yeah, and that's a LOT of dust specks," Maya chimed in from slightly behind the Doctor's back, she didn't no what else to say.

"What she said," the Doctor indicated toward Maya with his head. "So, unless you want to to spend the rest of time being sucked up into vacuum cleaners, surrender now and I may let you go."

Daisy crossed her arms at that and flashed a knowing smile. She spoke, but her voice was different now. Dangerous, slippery, almost as if words weren't coming out of her mouth, but snakes. "Oh Doctor, don't tell me that you may be losing your touch."

He continued to hold his ground, sonic in hand pretending that it was a deadly weapon. "Do you actually think I'm going to let you get away with this."

"What exactly is she not getting away with?" Maya whispered.

"This," Daisy nodded and more figures appeared, too quickly for even a Gallifreyan eye to catch. Two of them dressed as cigarette girls like Daisy grabbed Maya by the arms, and quickly brought her to Daisy, while two more grabbed the Doctor and held him back, as he fought to free himself. The one who held his arms, the hotel manager, forced his screwdriver out of his hands and tossed it aside. The other one who held the Doctor back, the front desk clerk, punched him multiple times in the gut, until he fell to the floor. He coughed heavily, trying to regain his breath.

Maya tried to force her way out, but the cigarette girls held her in grip so tight, it cut off blood from circulation.

"Hold him. You know how dangerous he is, Daisy ordered the two. She turned her attention to Maya, still fruitlessly fighting for freedom. "Now, my dear, you're going to help us finish our plan."

Maya stopped struggling and shot Daisy a look; the _have you gone crackers with a side of cocoanuts? _look. "Did you stick a fork in a light socket by any chance? What the hell makes you think that I'm going to do that?"

_Doctor, please hear this. I hope you're okay._

_ Never better,_ he answered in his mind! _Don't worry Maya, there's a plan; we'll get out of this._

_ It'd be nice if you let me in on it._

_ When the there's a plan, I'll share it._

_ Of course._

"I didn't ask for you to volunteer, did I?" Daisy asked. She gave no indication that she heard their conversation. None of them did. Daisy slowly walked away, towards the tubes. "You're going to help us whether you like it or not."

"What makes you think I can?" The cigarette girls' grip tightened.

"The residue surrounding you reeks of time, it's just power boost we need." Her right hand caressed the empty tube.

"Don't-take-her." Each word was said in between a cough. The Doctor weakly lifted his head. The beating had been harsh. "What do you need her for?"

"You know exactly what we're trying to do, Time Lord. And you know exactly why we need her. And you can't stop us. Take her to the empty chamber. The girls locked Maya's arms and legs in strong, steel-like straps. Daisy walked up to her prisoner.

"Thank you so much." She closed the glass door cackling like a witch from some forties movie.

_Don't be scared Maya._ She tried to nod and not look scared as Daisy pressed some buttons, turned a knob and rested her hand on the lever.

She turned to the Doctor, "Witness, Time Lord, as you friend wriths in agonizing pain to bring about the End of everything you swore to protect." And she pulled the lever.

_Wrong Lever! _The Doctor thought.

**AN- Another _Emperor's New Groove _reference. Couldn't resist! =] Sorry this took so long to upload, this chapter was giving me trouble. Originally, Daisy Rill was going to be someone else, but I changed it. So who are these people and what do they want? I'll leave you with that to chew on. Review or I will hold Chapter 8 hostage! Ha ha ha, just kidding (or am I . . . )**


	8. The End?

Maya felt a surge of electricity; it tingled and was mildly painful, like a thousand little pinches across her body. It wasn't pleasant, certainly uncomfortable, but she didn't feel the need to writh in excrutiating pain. Until . . .

_Pretend,_ the mental message said. Maya sent a mental reply and began to scream and struggle as though she were in unbearable suffering.

"Stop this now!" The Doctor yelled.

"I love it when a Time Lord begs." Daisy and her cronies sniggered, ignoring Maya's 'cries'. Daisy slowly walked over to the Doctor and slapped him in the face. In pure rage, she shouted, "And I'm going to ignore your cries for help the same way you ignored ours!"

The Doctor ajusted his jaw and spit something out of his mouth before he turned back to her. He looked at her with his angry eyes. They were terrifying. "I don't ever ignore a cry for help."

"You sat there and watched my family burn in flames." Daisy sneered. Pure hate was leeking from her voice. She turned away and looked at Maya with equal hate, who was still pretending to be in pain.

"Your family was commiting genocide on innocent people. I had no choice." He raised his voice.

"You could have chosen to save them!" She furiously turned a dial and the power increased in thirteenth tube. Now Maya didn't have to fake scream anymore.

Daisy laughed in that stereotypical evil cackle. So much so that she didn't notice a small green light flashing on and off.

"It amazes me that you've survived this long when you're so outrageously stupid."

That caught her attention. Daisy Rill furiously turned around and slapped the Time Lord again. "You're in a fine position to be handing out insults."

"I'm also in a fine position to tell you, that 'you are going to lose.'" He indicated toward the green light. She followed his eyeline and let out a squeal when she saw the flashing bulb. Daisy ran over to the console pressing buttons frantically, though had no idea whether she was pressing the right ones or not.

There was a loud clanking, whirring sound, like a fork inside a blender.

The Doctor over powered the distracted men holding him and dove for his screwdriver. He came up in a somersault and activated the screwdriver. The four henchmen fainted. He gave it a little flip, "Harry can have the Elder Wand; I have you."

He jumped over the console and ran over to Maya's capsule. He tried sonicing it open. That only made the whirring noise louder and now there was a static sound. Little bolts of lightning were appearing at random.

"Eh." The Doctor basically said, "Yeah, this just got worse."

He started pressing some buttons on the door.

"_Access Denied_," a British woman's voice said politely.

"Ugh!" The Doctor punched in the same numbers.

"_Access Denied_," the polite voice repeated.

"Come on, it's right," he pressed each button carefully; one at a time.

"_Didn't you hear me?_" the British woman's voice, yelled more than asked, in fury, no longer polite. "_Computer says no! Now type in the right bloody password!_"

The voice suspiciouslly sounded like an old friend.

**(AN- you KNOW you heard Catherine Tate's voice when you read that. Don't deny it. And now we continue with the story.)**

The Doctor looked through the glass; Maya was no longer screaming, she was unconcious. The sonic pinged as he looked for the right wavelength.

_I know your tired and hurt Maya, but you need to tell me the password so I can let you out._

Nothing.

_Come on, do you really want to stay in there? Fine, I'll just leave you then to be a battery for some crazy girl who's going to blow up this entire dimension._

_ Oh, shut up Doctor! In case you haven't noticed, I'm being eletricuted! The password is pomegranatestasteweird. No spaces._

_ Wha-Really?_

_ I didn't set it!_

"Okay!" He turned away. "Crabby pants," he muttered. He faced the panel and slowly typed as he said out loud, "PomegranatesTasteWeird."

"_Access Denied!_" the British voice said. "_You have tried the limited amount of times. You will be able to try again in the next hour. I told you to type in the right password you daft twit!_"

"But I jus- you- us- I'm arguing with voice-mail!"

"_Oi! I'm just doing my job flyboy!_"

"That was highly unexpected."

_Doctor, you typed in the wrong password. It's __pomegranitestasteweird!_

_ You just said no spaces, you didn't say 'no capitals!'_

_ Just shut the thing down. This thing actually hurts a little._

"Fine, give me a minute." He walked over to the console, almost casually.

Daisy stood there manically pressing buttons, twisting knobs, not really knowing exactly what she was doing. Maybe she was just hoping to get lucky.

"What'cha doing?" the Doctor asked the frantic girl with a neutral look on his face. He was leaning with his back against the console and his elbows up, they actually hit some buttons, but it didn't do anything.

She didn't answer.

He turned his body around. Elbows still on the console, still hitting buttons. Only now he faced the hundreds of buttons, levers, knobs and other various dials that, when activated, probably did something too. "You're not going to shut it down that way."

She still ignored him.

"Huh," the Doctor breathed out a sigh of annoyance and pressed three buttons, pulled a lever, rounded two dials and pressed two more buttons. Everything except the lights shut down. Daisy stopped moving.

The Doctor walked around the console and over to the capsule a wide awake Maya was trapped in. The sudden shut down had woken her.

The Doctor flipped his screwdriver.

"Do you really think you should use that? Last time you did that you caused a mini indoor lightning storm."

"You want to stay in there?" The Doctor shrugged with his hands up.

Maya shut her eyes and turned her head away.

_Click!_ The door opened.

"Now that works." Maya said as the Doctor undid the metal restraints. She fell, but the Doctor caught her?

"My head's buzzing and soaked. What am I soaked in?"

"Perspiration." He started checking her for any injuries, putting a flashlight in her eyes. "A lot of strain on your body."

"You must be getting tired of checking me for injuries."

"No major damage," he listened to her heartbeat with a stethoscope that came out of nowhere. "Yep, all quiet on the western front."

"Another thing you're going to have to show me?"

"Eh, not that important. Better?"

"Considerably."

"What just happened?" Daisy asked herself as she stared blankly at the console, hands hung in midair.

"What she said," Maya reinterated as the Doctor helped her up.

The Doctor took in a breath; Maya looked for somewhere to sit down. This one was going to be wordy; you did't need to be psychic to know that.

_BRING! URR! CLANG!_

REALLY loud annoying sounds, like a fire drill or a car alarm started filling the room. Everyone helplessly covered their ears. Daisy fainted. Probably couldn't take the noise.

"What the hell is that?" Maya shouted as loud as she could.

"What?" The Doctor shouted back. It was so loud, he couldn't hear anything she'd said; they looked like that silent film.

"What's going- Oh, forget it," Maya closed her eyes. _What the hell is going on?_ There was still one way they could talk.

_The entire system is collapsing! This whole place is going to implode on itself!_

_ Then let's hightail it out of here!_ Maya nodded her head to the side to indicate which way she wanted to go.

_Well, we could,_ the Doctor turned his head to the console. _But the implosion is going to keep folding in on itself, becoming a blackhole until this dimension is completely pulled in. Once nothing else is left, all that energy in a tiny space will explode. _

_ How?_

_ Imagine a jar and your trying stuff everything in it and then put the lid on it._

_ Okay, a jar._ Maya nodded.

_Good, its not like that at all, but if it helps, meh. _The Doctor shrugged. Impressive how he could shrug his shoulders with his hands on his ears. _But that's not the best part. The explosion won't be contained here. It'll be so massive, that it'll cascade into Earth's dimension and destroy the whole city._

_ Yeah, that's not good._ The Doctor shook his 'no' furiously.

_ You go free everyone trapped in those cylinders. I'll shut this thing down! _He turned toward the console, she turned to chambers, then stopped and turned back.

_How? _They were password locked and purple lightning bolts were coming out of them.

Fingers moving in an impossible blur, the Doctor's head and face were twisted in pain from the noise. _I don't know, I'm busy doing something else. You're psychic, think of something. _

The alarms were getting louder and stronger.

"M,okay," Maya mumbled as she shrugged her shoulders and walked over to the twelve cylinders. Her hands moved away from her head, down to her side. With a final, questioning look she closed her eyes and listened. Not to the piercing noise all around; that was slowly fading away into muted hum.

Waiting and listening for her powers to tell her what she needed to do, Maya took in deep breaths and instead of fishing for the information, she waited for it to come to her.

_Okay, right! Shut down the crystalic batteries. Check. Slow down the turbines, and-_ the Doctor typed in the a few command codes and-

The alarms turned off. Now the only noise was the electricity building up.

"Ah, much better. Finally, clear enough to think," he said out loud. With his hands clasped, he turned them over and streched every muscle in both his arms releasing so much built up tension. "Now, the real work begins. How you doing Maya?"

But he didn't look up or even listen for an answer; he was on autopilot, probably not aware that he had asked.

A full minute had passed without moving for Maya before something came to her. How to open the chambers without getting shocked. Trusting herself, Maya ran over to the console and reached into the Doctor's top left pocket and pulled his sonic screwdriver.

"What the hell?"

Ignoring him, she pulled off her feather headband and tore it apart. Sticking the feather's pointy tip into a small hole, Maya twisted it like a lock pick until she heard a quick four note musical ring. It worked.

She tossed the feather aside and aimed the sonic. Taking in a deep breath, she closed her eyes and an pressed a button. The chamber doors opened and the purple electric current stopped flowing.

"Ha." Maya let out a small laugh, then a scream of delight. It worked. She composed herself and aimed the screwdriver at a small generator.

Too bad her psychic abilities didn't pick up that someone behind her was smiling.

"Here you go!" The Doctor nearly dropped his screwdriver when Maya tossed it to him. "There free. Now how do we shut this down?"

After the generator was destroyed, and the waxy comatose had woken up, Maya lead all twelve of them down the hall to the 'magic' elevator to escape. It was a very long trip; none of them had any energy and every few minutes that New Yorker Al guy still kept trying to get her to go out with him.

Maya was half tempted to put him back in the giant tube.

"Almost there." The Doctor was still moving so fast, Maya was afraid that he would catch on fire.

"But I shut down the eletric current. Quite ingeniusly, I might add. Problem solved, blackhole crisis averted." She walked around the unconscious Daisy and sat up on the console as the Doctor continued working.

"No, you only belayed it. Thanks for that, is buying some time. But the electric current isn't the problem, it's a decoy. It's a manifestation of the real problem." The Doctor took a reading.

"So what's the real problem?"

"You." That got her attention. Maya gulped at his nonchalant statement. Maybe he just wanted to hear himself talk, because he went on in a technobabble speech. "She needed thirteen people in those chambers so that she could sapp all the energy out of them and use it. Anyone strong stayed, any weaklings were thrown out, literally. How unfortunate. But she didn't realize exactly what she was putting in that container."

"Still confused," she chimed when the Doctor randomly stopped talking.

"Hm, oh, right. She needed a particular energy. Human energy. And thanks to that shiny thing on your finger, you read as just the kind of strong person she needed. The machine started to consume your energy."

"And that's a bad thing?"

"Its like putting in diesal fuel when your car runs on regular unleaded."

"And that's a bad thing?" she repeated.

"Okay, you don't understand, er, bad analogy. Um, the energy that comes off of you from being part Voyance clogged up the system, not unlike pipes under a sink. It wass completely blocked up and this whole place will implode and that energy is going to leak out and all of Chicago will be destroyed, and, what did you do with those people?" the Doctor turned her; he had a quizical look on his face.

"Did you know that your sonic screwdriver's factory setting comes with a memory flashy thing like in _Men In Black_. Now, THAT, is awesome!"

"Oh yeah. I knew that." The Doctor turned around and pretended to twist knobs when really he turned to his screwdriver. _Maybe I should read the manuel again._

"Doctor!" he turned back. "So, we've established that this is my fault, now how are you going to save the day and look like a hero?"

"Pardon?" his voice went soft and innocent.

"Come'on Doc, put on a cape and win, like you always do." She then smiled. "I'll give you a hand. Green to blue. Purple to yellow. Orange to parunet."

The Doctor continued messing with his screwdriver. "What does that mean?"

"I dunno," Maya shrugged. "I'm just the messenger. You scanned this whole thing, you must have some idea of how it works."

"Yeah, funny thing," he turned to her, "someone reset my screwdriver and now the readings are all wonky. I can't make heads or tails of them."

"Really? Wonky?" She looked around the room, no longer full of purple lightning or screeching noises. The only sign that anything was wrong were some small flashing lights. "Hey, what was that gold child thing?"

"Hm, a holographic manifestation of the main computer." The floor started to shake, they grabbed onto the console for balance. Maya asked another question.

"Why was it a child?"

"I don't know, I didn't program it. Why do you want to know?" The ground started to shake harder, they held on tighter.

"It might know what to do."

"Why would it tell us?"

"It's a child. It's 'friendly', remember?" Debris started to break off and fall from the ceiling

The Doctor let out a triumphant luagh as they dodged falling rubble and wreckage. Still holding on he turned to face the ceiling and shouted, "We've got a question for you!"

A gold orb of light appeared a few meters in front of them. It spun quickly spouting golden glitter, slowly the small child reappeared. It looked sad.

"What do you want?" It asked in it's adorable voice.

"This whole place is going to be destroyed. Do you know how to stop it?"

"Of course I do." The two of them smiled. "But why should I tell you?"

The Doctor's face was priceless; he looked absolutly stumped. How often does anyone get to see that?

"Because then nobody would be around to play with you," Maya interjected.

The child seemed to ponder this. Maya and the Doctor exchanged nervous glances. Hey, maybe Chicago would look great as a big gaping hole; that lake would certainly be a lot bigger.

"Okay," the child finally said cheerfully. "Open the third hatch under the console."

Carefully, the Doctor lowered himself, head disappeared underneath with a hatch lid appearing as he threw it across the room. He looked like a mechanic with his legs sticking out.

"What next?"

"The wires," the child said. Then it giggled, "goodbye."

It disappeared.

"Wait!" _Bang!_ "Ow!"

"Did you hit your head?" Maya asked.

Pause. "No."

"'The Wires', what does that mean?"

A slightly echoed voice answered, "There're a lot of wires here. Green, blue, gold, red, aquamarine and, hello, what's this? It's sort of oragne and purple and white all at the same time."

"Parunet," she whispered.

"What?" _Bang! _"Ow."

"Hit your head again?"

Pause again. "No."

"That color," Maya lowered herself and lay next to the Doctor. "It's called parunet." She pointed to wires. "Remember what I said? Green to blue. Purple to yellow. Orange to parunet."

The Doctor smiled. "I knew I was right." He reached out for a piece of sharp metal that had fallen from the ceiling.

"I'll bite. What about?"

"That having a friend called Maya would be interesting." He grabbed the green wire an cut it apart with the metal.

Maya leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"What was that for?"

"Being a knight in worn blue box."She held the ends as he continued cutting the six colored wires that she told him. When he was done, she asked, "Which ends connect?"

"I could explain the mechanics but it'd take too long." He tied two wires together and handed it to Maya to hold. "DON'T move that. Hold every one of them very gently."  
>"Got it."<p>

There were five wire connections inbetween Maya's fingers. "I'm about to be eletricuted, can we please go more quickly."

"Almost there," the Doctor tied the last connection and handed to her. "Done!" He started fishing inside his pockets. What was he looking for? Were his pockets made out of the same material as Mary Poppins' bag by any chance? "Here we go."

She couldn't see the object in his hand, but whatever it was, he was spreading it on the exposed wire bit. Maya released the wires and they pulled themselves out and up. But the lights were still flashing and the floor was still shaking.

"What else?"

The Doctor typed, "The password, but the pomegranites thing isn't working. What is it?"

"I don't know." Maya started to panic. She wasn't getting anything.

"_Say please_." The same voice guarding that had yelled at the Doctor for not typing in the right password.

They exchanged confused looks, and at the same time, let out a hesistant, "Please?"

"__. No caps. No spaces."

"Okay," the Doctor said hesitently _Click. Click._ He typed the password, but he didn't press enter.

"Hurry before we all explode!"

"It's implode, and what if she yells at me again." The ground rumbling had esculated; resembling a massive earthquake. Maya didn't care.

"Oh, Good Lord!" She slammed on the enter button and everything went quiet. Tension was building. Finally, the woman's voice came back. "_Access Granted. Congradulations Doctor!"_ Bling. The disjointed voice had shut itself off.

Slowly, the ground's shaking stopped. Nothing but silence filled the room.

Until Maya let out a scream of delight. The Doctor joined her. She hugged with a vice-like grip. After they broke their embrace, Maya asked, "What was that stuff you used on the wire?"

The Doctor pulled out a small clear tape dispenser, with a big green word written across the package, 'Scotch'.

"You saved the world with a roll of scotch tape. Were you the inspiration for Macgyver by any chance?"

"Hm, I think I like that analogy. Ready?" He started walking toward the hallway.

"For what?"

"Next adventure. This one's over."

"Where's that?"

"Don't know. Not yet anyway."

**AN- Any loose ends that need tying? I know there are a few. Let m know which ones and if they're enough, maybe I'll write an epilogue. See you guys soon! Please review!**


	9. The Best Epilouge Ever!

"The sun goes down  
>The stars come out<br>And all that counts  
>Is here and now"<p>

_Knock. Knock. Knock_

"Come in! Have a seat!" Maya called out as she turned down the music, it was playing quietly in the background. "My universe will never be the same/ I'm glad you came/ I'm glad you came"

The Doctor entered her room and sat on a comfy chair. He gave her a teasing look. "Enjoying yourself?"

"I'm really liking the Tardis's musical library. Better than iTunes."

The Doctor nodded impressivly. "See you didn't waste any time raiding the waradrobe either."

Maya rolled her eyes. She had traded away that black and white flapper ensemble for an outfit entirely her, because she built it from anything she found interesting in that _very _large closet. The patent leather t-strap heels were replaced by dark brown mid-calf scrunch boots. Tucked into her boots were off-white fitted trousers being held up with a plain light brown belt.

On top, she wore a pale blue three-quarter sleeve cotton camp shirt. Over that was a dark brown, almost black tweed waistcoat. She wasn't without accessories, either. Around her wrists were identical brown faux leather bracelets with a silver charm facing up and a faux leather cord with a small, green teething pendant hanging from her neck. Off to the side was a characoal black and dark gray mid-thigh jacket that looked like it was from Russia in the late 19th century. Maybe it was.

"I'm not much of a dress girl," Maya finally said. "Had to fight tooth and claw with a gremlin for this waistcoat though. It wasn't his color, really." She smiled at that. So did he.

"You ready?" and he didn't have to say for what.

She jumped up excitedly. "Which did you end up picking, the Great Towers of the Singing Chibis or riding brachiosaurus in the Mesozoic Era?" He raised an eyebrow

"I heard you debating about it for a brief moment," she added before he could say something about why she was probing his mind.

"Neither." He seemed rather smug when he said that. He could still out smart a psychic.

That caught her off guard. "Well then, where slash when are we going?"

"Somewhere I think you'll really like. You might want to grab your coat." He stood up and made his way out the door. As she grabbed her coat, she ran over to turn off the music. "You cast a spell on me, spell on me/ You hit me like the sky fell on me, fell on me."

Quickly running out to catch up with him in the hall, Maya began the game where she asks a lot of questions. "Now that I've had some time to think about the whole thing, do you mind if I get some answers?"

"Only if I get interesting questions," the Doctor answered without turning around; his voice echoing throughout the Tardis control room.

"This is going to sound stupid, but how did you know things were wrong in the speakeasy?" Maya bit her lip, hoping he wouldn't look back at her face.

The Doctor immediately walked down a flight of stairs that led under the console, below the glass floor. "On the interesting scale, that's an eight. She got her facts wrong. Daisy Rill sounded like she was from east Mississippi, even named a city from that area. But Boyle, Mississippi won't exist for, what? 30 odd years, give or take." He opened a drawer and pulled out a pair goggles straight out of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

"You can't pull the wool over my eyes, Maya. I know everything. An advantage of time travel," he said as he fixed them over his eyes. However, they were so big, they actually covered his eyebrows.

"I hear you!" she called out, thankful he was on a different level; this way he couldn't see her stifle a laugh.

After a few moments of fighting snickers, the Doctor spoke up. "That the only one?" He started connecting wires.

A few breaths in to calm herself, Maya finally asked, "What was Daisy? And what was with her whole 'revenge will be mine! MWAH-HA-HA!'- thing? I'm not getting any vibes from that." She slowly made her way over to the stairs and made her way down to join him on his level. That way they could have a conversation without shouting.

"Sparknotes?" the Doctor asked in a muffled voice from below. Maya made a confirmation noise, but noticed that his body language throught the floor and that he didn't really want to tell the story. Must be a nineteen on the interesting scale.

"Her family was going to, well, destroy the world. I don't kill Maya. I look for peaceful solutions. I stopped them, but she became trapped in a pocket dimension, separate from time and space, she watched her family die because they were on the other side of the dimension. I didn't know she was trapped in there and somehow, she broke free."

"Did you reinforce the seals this time?" The Doctor had left Daisy, was that even her name? She wasn't from Earth. But then again neither was Maya. They'd left her alone with only her childlike computer to keep her company until her death, just as it was before they had interfered.

Maybe there are some times when it would be more merciful for the Doctor to let people die.

"Yes," the Doctor sighed. Was he actually agreeing with a passing thought that she dismissed the moment it entered her mind? He was over a thousand years old, a lot of time to think. No, he was probably answering the question she had asked out loud.

Time to change the subject; she didn't want to depress everything. "So no dinosaurs?" Maya asked in mock whining. She leaned against the railing for support she didn't need. "I was watching Jurassic Park on something called Blu Ray to prepare."

"I'm going to have to ask for a raincheck," the Doctor said with strain in his voice as he lifted a heavy. He installed something to the engine, but it caused a huge spark to go off in his face. Lucky for him he had his really cool steampuck goggles on or his eyebrows would have been fried.

Maya laughed lovingly at that as she sat on the steps next to the Tardis's underside.

She got serious for a moment. "It's just, I know I did basically say dealers choice here, but would it be okay if I had a vote every once and a while?"

The Doctor pushed his funky eyewear up, making his hair stick out even more than it usually does. If he stuck his tongue out, him and Einstein would've looked exactly alike. He looked her in the eyes, getting serious himself.

"This next trip is a surprise just for you," seriousness gone. He pulled the goggles back down, picked up and activated a blowtorch, creating fire. "You're gonna LOVE where we go."

He started using the blowtorch on a dull orange device. Maya looked both concerened and amused. She stood up and started walking back up to the console. "Whatever you say, hopefully there aren't any people like that Al _Kay_-pone guy where we're going," she said with a pondering look.

That made the Doctor look up. His blowtorch went out. "Capone," he whispered, then turned to look at her.

"Al _Kah_-pone?" he asked out loud.

"Yeah, that's how he said it, how'd you know that?" The Doctor looked at her for a minute, then reactivated his blowtorch, now working on some wires.

"Doctor?"

"Oh, it's nothing Maya. Trust me." He blew out the torch, reconnected two wires, without the scotch tape and closed a panel.

He turned to look at her and although he was wearing completely blackened goggles that covered even his eyebrows, she swore they were doing their trademark cocky eyebrow dance. "I'm a doctor."

"Coordinence set. Okay!" He clapped his hands loudly. He pressed a few more buttons. "Batteries to power."

"Turbines to speed," Maya interjected excitedly. She grinned like an idiot at that. "I couldn't resist."

His hand on the final lever. The Doctor turned to her and took a deep breath. "Ready?"

Wherever they were going, it had to be good. She bit her bottom lip, then released it, nodding with confidence.

_Creak!_ went the lever and they held on tight so not to fall on the ground by the force. "Geronimo!"

They landed. Maya didn't run to the door this time. This time was different; she could feel it was different. This trip was going to be different.

"It'll be okay," the Doctor said in a voice that was as calm and soothing as chamomile tea. Better than thearpy. No charge. And you can travel throughout time and space.

But she was hesistant. The Doctor opened the door first and stepped out into a light. Not bright, but beautiful. After a few seconds, she walked out and saw it. Even though she had never been before, she recognized it. Not from some distant dream, just a feeling, a vibe she had learned to trust. But how were they here?

Maybe the Doctor was hiding some minding reading powers or he just knew she would ask this question after what he'd told her because he answered her question.

"This is the real planet. We're on the real moon and these are the real Voyance."

People who looked just like her but she knew they weren't human. Maya looked at them and felt one word; 'home'. Trying not to cry, she confronted him in her mind because she didn't trust her voice not to break.

_But you said that-_

"I know what I said," he answered out loud. "This isn't like in Chicago. We can't interact with them in anyway."

As if the young man walking toward her was trying to reiterate the Doctor's words, he walked right through her, then the Doctor, then the Tardis. He passed through her like he was a ghost. Or she was.

"I said the Tardis was, is and always will be locked out from this time and place, and that is true but I found a loophole. By putting her in Spema Mode and reorganizing the binary circuits in the Alpha nodes, we can bypass that lock and observe. Like when we saw those Charlie Chaplin shorts. We cannot ineract with them in anyway. We can't talk to them, touch them, even send them messages physically. And no, we can't warn them. What you're seeing and hearing is something like a shadow or a reflection; a memory and since we were not part of the original, we can not change it."

"Why?"

"Being the last of your species and not know anything about their culture; would be torture. If you were to die, this whole culture dies. Seeing all this is better then reading about it in the Tardis's files."

She turned to him. Even though she would have sounded stronger in her mind, Maya wanted to say the words, feel the vibration of her vocal chords, here the bones in her ears rattle; she almost wanted her voice to crack. She kissed him on the cheek. "Thank you."

**AN- Thank you so much guys for reading! Seriously, you are all awesome and you really did help make the story better. Yes, it is sad that this story is over, but fret not, (that was fun to say) I'm not letting Maya and the Doctor get away that easily. Our sassy, psychic friend will return in a sequel. What's the title? . . . I'm still not sure, but I will let you guys know ASAP. Most likely candidate is _Remember Me._ Thanks guys and if you do have any ideas, let me know. Thank you so much again! Oh and please review!**


	10. Previews: Remember Me?

Hey everyone. My sister suggested that I put a preview of the next story in this series up here, (even though I've already started posting the chapters for that story). The sequel is called, _Travels with the Doctor: Remember Me?_

Maya and The Doctor are on another adventure. This time they're bumbling about in modern day London when mistakes keep them from leaving. But the Doctor has to be careful, since he's spent so much time here:

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><p><em>"Fine. I was . . . less right."<em>

_Maya placed two fingers on her neck. Satisfied with whatever she wanted, she then placed the back of her hand on the Doctor's forehead. "What are you doing?" he asked in a deadpan manner._

_"Making sure I didn't have a stroke and/or you weren't terminally ill with something." Maya took away her hand and smiled. "What were you 'less right' about?"_

_"Come on __Alice__, further down the rabbit hole we go." The Doctor said enthusiastically, ignoring her question, while pressing buttons. He pulled a lever, apparently too hard, because it broke off. Maya's eyes widened in panic._

_"Don't worry, it's supposed to do that," he said panicky as he tried to hook it back up. There was a guttural beeping noise coming from the Tardis console. _

_"I'm guessing it's supposed to do that too?" Maya asked worriedly as she held onto a side railing. The entire room began to shake like an earthquake._

_"Only if we wanted to die," the Doctor said in a stressed voice, still trying to get the lever back to where it belonged._

_"How comforting," Maya shouted over the rumbling noise coming from below the see-through floor, where the engine continued to growl in fury._

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><p>OH NO! How will they get they get out of this one? How will the Doctor save the day? Did the Doctor just admit to being wrong! O.o Tune in to find out. =]<p> 


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